This book is an easy-to-use guide for school boards in how to use data intelligently when evaluating student achievement, educational improvement, and school accountability. Its purpose is to encourage school boards to use data as a basis for their decision-making instead of speculation, perception, or limited observation. Board members can learn why using data is significant, what the different types of data are and how to interpret them, and how to involve and educate parents and community members in their governing efforts. Differences in how the superintendent and board members use data are presented in an easy-to-understand format. Each chapter concludes with a quiz to test understanding of the material and a hypothetical case study that examines how a typical school board might work with data to help resolve the complex and potentially controversial issue of a proposed change in start times for high school students. Questions are presented to stimulate thinking about the situation. The book concludes with a glossary of data-related terms, a bibliography, a list of Web sites, a list of outcomes from the January 2001 meeting of the National School Boards Foundation (NSBF), and NSBF contact information. (Contains 20 references.) (RT)