Those asked to make valid decisions with data don't have the technical knowledge to understand nuance around data quality, assessment aims, and statistical limitations that influence how they should interpret the data. This reality is what Greg Thompson, Leslie Rutkowski, and David Rutkowski call the validity paradox. Educators can surmount this…

We are surrounded by data and data visualizations in our everyday lives. To help ensure that students can critically evaluate data--and use it to promote social justice--this book outlines principles and practices for teaching data literacy as part of social studies education. The author shows how social studies content and skills can enhance both…

Most school and district leaders have a wealth of information available to them before, during, and after the hiring process, but they might not analyze it regularly or use it to inform their recruitment and retention plans. However, using data strategically is key to positively impacting teacher recruitment and retention. This brief discusses…

This study addresses a gap in the literature by examining K-12 administrators' perceptions of school social workers' usage of student data. Before the start of the 2020-2021 school year, school social workers from a national organization invited their administrators via email to complete a survey, producing 48 responses. Administrators perceived…

Despite vital professional development support through the National Art Education Association's Data Visualization Working Group and other scholars' engagement with the topic in the literature, pedagogical literature that connects contemporary data visualization methods to art teaching practices is limited. While acknowledging that many of us have…

This brief provides district PBIS [positive behavioral interventions and supports] leadership teams a framework to examine school-level fidelity and self-assessment data to guide resource, professional development, and technical assistance decision making.

The potential benefits of the growing amount of available educational data have not been fully realized, especially for principals, who play a key role in deriving insight from data to inform school improvement. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to describe experiences of principals using data analysis tools in a K-12 system. With a…

Educators globally are continually encouraged to use data to inform instructional improvement in schools, yet while there have been many recent innovations in data visualization and data science, educators are rarely included in dashboard co-design. On December 5 and 6, 2019, the Education Data Analytics Collaborative Workshop was held at Teachers…

There is a large body of research exploring the difficulties young people experience on the transition to secondary education. However, there has been little comparative research yielding insights into how these experiences vary by institutional context. This article explores differences in school transition difficulties among young people in…

This article characterizes and reflects on the possible uses of early warning systems (hereafter, EWS) in the region as effective tools to support educational pathways, whenever they identify risks of dropout, difficulties for the achievement of substantive learning, and the possibility of organizing specific actions. This article was developed in…

Although the number of countries conducting large-scale assessments has significantly increased over the past two decades, this has not necessarily led to the effective use of learning assessment data in policymaking and planning. To better understand the reasons for this, the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP)…

Data use has gained policy traction at the federal, state, and local levels in the United States and internationally, and is now embedded in teacher, principal, and district leader standards in the U.S. However, many decisions implemented in policy and practice are being made on insufficient evidence and assume a relatively straightforward,…

In this comparative study, I examine principal data use in two sets of districts. One set of three districts has a district-wide focus on using data to improve instruction, and the other set, also with three districts, has a district-wide focus on analyzing disaggregated data by student demographic groups. Data sources include interviews with…

Although the number of countries conducting large-scale assessments has increased significantly over the past two decades, this has not necessarily led to the effective use of learning assessment data in policy-making and planning. To better understand the reasons for this, the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP)…

This guide is designed for use by school, district, and state education agency staff to improve the effectiveness of efforts to collect and use discipline data, including reporting accurate and timely data to the federal government. It explains the importance of collecting discipline data, identifies key considerations for agencies implementing…