Despite increasing calls to build equitable data infrastructures, the education field has yet to have a shared guideline around equitable education data management and stewardship. To address this gap, we propose one framework from the data governance literature: the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data management principles…

This paper explores the potential of abductive reasoning to enhance the analysis of international large-scale assessments which have traditionally relied on deductive and inductive reasoning. While these conventional methods have provided valuable insights into global student achievement, they often fail to capture the complexity of educational…

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the use of the exemplar methodology (ExM) as a method for selecting exemplars in education research. ExM is a systematic approach to selecting outliers that can be used to education researchers who investigate outliers to better understand phenomena among students, teachers, schools, and communities. While…

The paper argues that learning analytics as a research field can benefit from a theory-informed shared language to describe sensemaking of learning and teaching data. To make the case for such shared language, first, I critically review prominent sensemaking theories to then demonstrate how studies in learning analytics do not use coherent…

When the COVID-19 pandemic drove schools online in March 2020, state education leaders were left without access to data needed to understand how best to support students. The pandemic revealed the strengths and limitations of state education data systems while inspiring new strategies for collecting, reporting and using data. In 2021, DataSmith…

In this paper, we propose a new method for selecting cases for in situ, immediate interview research: detector-driven classroom interviewing (DDCI). Published work in educational data mining and learning analytics has yielded highly scalable measures that can detect key aspects of student interaction with computer-based learning in close to…

This paper scrutinizes the increasing trend of using international large-scale assessment (ILSA) data for causal inferences in educational research, arguing that such inferences are often tenuous. We explore the complexities of causality within ILSAs, highlighting the methodological constraints that challenge the validity of causal claims derived…

This article draws on a new materialist paradigm to explore bricolaging data from an early childhood research project through an immanent ethical lens. This lens enables the researcher to stretch towards non-hierarchical relationships in between subjects and objects, thinking and doing. A bricoleur explores and builds different…

This article presents a descriptive, critical analysis of the comparability of information concerning students, teachers, and school resources gathered by organisations within government jurisdiction, and the pitfalls for the unwary researcher using government data banks. Differences in the method of compiling information about citizens, and…

In this article, we argue for increased participant choice in early years research and beyond. Drawing on relevant literature and our own empirical work, we demonstrate that giving participants more choice leads to richer data and more robust findings. We also show that more choice for participants is closely aligned with co-creation and…

The Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA) launched in 2016 to provide nationally comparable, publicly available test score data for U.S. public school districts. I introduce a special collection of six articles that each use SEDA to lend their questions and findings a national scope. Together, these articles demonstrate a range of uses of SEDA…

Over the past few years, "assemblage theory or assemblage thinking" has garnered increasing attention in educational research, but has been used only tangentially in explications of the nature of comparative and international education (CIE) as a field. This conceptual examination applies an assemblage theory lens to explore the contours…

State education agencies are sitting on rich repositories of quantitative and qualitative assessment data. This document is designed to provide a conceptual framework and implementation guidance that can help agency leadership leverage and interrogate student performance data in systematic ways for reporting, outreach, and planning purposes. The…

The Education Insights Center produced a series of reports culminating in recommendations for the structure and governance of a preschool through higher education and into the workforce (known as a P20W data system). This brief follows up on that series, with a focus on data quality; the brief was informed by the author's experience using…

An effective educational program warrants the inclusion of an innovative construction that enhances the higher education efficacy in such a way that accelerates the achievement of desired results and reduces the risk of failures. Educational decision support system has currently been a hot topic in educational systems, facilitating the pupil…