Strategic communications is important for building awareness, engagement, and commitment for serving children and youth. When this communication is bidirectional, it also creates avenues for state education agency (SEA) leaders to receive timely, honest feedback from stakeholders about the effectiveness of whole-person initiatives. This guide is…

A commonly used metric for measuring college costs, drawn from data in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), is expenditure per full-time equivalent (FTE) student. This article discusses an error in this per FTE calculation when using IPEDS data, especially with regard to community colleges. The problem is that expenditures…

This statistical analysis report presents key findings and other data highlights from School-Level Finance Survey (SLFS) in school years 2015-16 and 2016-17. The report focuses on (1) the completeness and comparability of SLFS data and (2) how the SLFS can be utilized to evaluate differences in resource allocation (as measured by school-level…

The purpose of this study was to examine how educators working within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) framework make sense of data, how they use data for instructional decision-making, and how the data use cultures at the district and school levels influence this data use. The study was designed with a theoretical framework informed by…

This study explored the core competencies, technological skills, functional proficiencies, and professional experiences of data scientists at higher education institutions. The specific population of interest was higher education administrators and staff professionals identified as data scientists. This study was informed by the following guiding…

The increasing volume of information and the intense pace of its circulation are changing the ways universities access, use, analyze, and provide data. Many have championed the use of large-scale databases to track student admissions and retention, faculty productivity, student wellness, and other phenomena that shape our understandings of higher…

Background/Context: Contemporary accountability policies in teacher education often require that programs systematically use data for program improvement (Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, 2013). However, social science research from multiple fields of human service suggests that the challenges of using data involve much more…

Libraries remain one of the last places on campus where the purging of usage data is encouraged and "tracking" is a dirty word. While some libraries have demonstrated the usefulness of analytics, opponents bring up issues of privacy and debate the feasibility of student-generated library data for planning and assessment. Using a study…

In this study, teacher education students' concerns, sense of efficacy, and anxiety related to the future use of data to drive educational decision-making were explored. In alignment with prior research with practicing teachers, this sample of pre-service teachers reported concerns (thoughts, preoccupations, and feelings) that indicate they are…

During spring 2020, educators quickly adapted to providing interventions and collecting data virtually despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents were critical partners in supporting opportunities for students with intensive needs to data-based individualization (DBI) Process practice and receive feedback and sharing what was working…

On behalf of the National Governors Association (NGA), and with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) has developed this resource, which highlights states that have released data thresholds, sometimes referred to as gating criteria or benchmarks, to guide schools, school…

Following a high-quality early care and pre-K experience, the kindergarten-through-third-grade years set the foundation upon which future learning builds; and strengthening this continuum creates opportunities for later success. Key components of a quality experience in K-3 include school readiness and transitions, kindergarten requirements,…

Postsecondary education is awash in data. Postsecondary institutions track data on students' demographics, academic performance, course-taking, and financial aid, and have put these data to use, applying data analytics and data science to issues in college completion. Meanwhile, an extensive amount of higher education data are being collected…

States often turn to a data masking procedure called microsuppression in order to reduce the risk of disclosing student records when sharing data with external researchers. This process removes records deemed to have high risk for disclosure should data be released. However, this process can induce differences between the original data and the…

States often turn to a data masking procedure called microsuppression in order to reduce the risk of disclosing student records when sharing data with external researchers. This process removes records deemed to have high risk for disclosure should data be released. However, this process can induce differences between the original data and the…