This study investigates how 11- to 12-year-old students construct data-based decision trees using data cards for classification purposes. We examine the students' heuristics and reasoning during this process. The research is based on an eight-week teaching unit during which students labeled data, built decision trees, and assessed them using test…

This report focuses on the ways in which 36 Grade 4 students recognized, explained, described, and employed variation during interviews conducted 1 month after participating in STEM-based activities in which they tested, adjusted, and re-tested catapults. An inductive thematic methodology was used for analysis of the interview transcripts to…

This study investigated the process of instructional change required to translate data on student progress along learning trajectories (LTs) into relevant instructional modifications. Researchers conducted a professional development session on ratio LTs, which included analyzing 3 years of district-level data from Math-Mapper 6-8, a digital…

In an increasingly data-driven society, making decisions with data is a requirement not only for research scientists but also for navigating life more generally (Kjelvik & Schultheis, 2019). An informed citizenry must be prepared to discover patterns, predict outcomes, make decisions with data, and evaluate data-based claims for legitimacy and…

Youth-focused Community and Citizen Science (CCS) projects are contexts in which youth can contribute to the entire "data lifecycle"--from data-collection to decision-making with their scientific findings. But data alone does not contain the answers for what action to take and how. Using the educational context of an afterschool CCS bird…

This study examines what forms of data school leaders use, how they matter for students' learning, and which school contexts matter for such leadership practices to succeed. Utilizing hierarchical linear modeling, we analyzed survey responses from 1,381 school leaders and administrative data from 269 Florida schools. We find that although school…

Data-based decision making (DBDM) is presumed to improve student performance in elementary schools in all subjects. The majority of studies in which DBDM effects have been evaluated have focused on mathematics. A hierarchical multiple single-subject design was used to measure effects of a 2-year training, in which entire school teams learned how…

This paper describes a collaboration organized around exchanging data between two technological systems to support teachers' instructional decision-making. The goals of the collaboration among researchers, technology developers, and practitioners were not only to support teachers' instructional decision-making but also to document the challenges…

Literacy is an essential life skill, and adolescents need strong literacy skills to succeed in secondary schools and beyond. Low literacy achievement in the middle grades puts students, particularly students with disabilities (SWD), at a disadvantage heading into high school and can lead to negative outcomes such as dropping out. The intention of…

For students who show inadequate response to research-based intervention, intensification of intervention using data-based decision making (DBDM) is recommended. There is a paucity of research on upper elementary students related to the efficacy of (a) word reading interventions and (b) DBDM procedures. This randomized controlled trial examined…

Automatic machine learning (AutoML) methods automate the time-consuming, feature-engineering process so that researchers produce accurate student models more quickly and easily. In this paper, we compare two AutoML feature engineering methods in the context of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data mining competition. The…

This study examines the way teachers make sense of data in the context of high-stakes decision making, such as decisions related to student placement in educational tracks. Different types of data, data collected rationally and intuitively, may be used in this sensemaking process, and the same data may be interpreted in different ways by different…

Administrators at a Southeastern elementary school eliminated single-sex instructional grouping in 5th-grade classes without a proper analysis of all available data and later reflected upon whether this instructional model should be revived. Because data-based decisions may positively improve teaching and learning for all stakeholders, the purpose…

Multi-Tiered System of Supports is a comprehensive framework that unites colleagues of various backgrounds together in pursuit of a common goal to support students with evidence-based interventions to meet their individual needs in the school setting. The problem addressed in this study was the lack of professional development training teachers…

Rubrics can be used to give students targeted feedback on their writing and, therefore, teachers should be able to use them as a type of formative assessment to guide writing instruction. This article describes an exploratory study of how three teachers provided instruction for fourth, fifth, and seventh graders with learning disabilities and…