Why data-based decision making?

School improvement is the ultimate goal of school reform laws and the rules, policies, and procedures for implementing them. Federal and many state laws require schools to have school improvement plans and to set goals to improve student achievement of standards. Goals for improvement are based on state and local assessment results and the indicator systems of which they are a part. These results reveal overall learning, conditions that affect learning, and discrepancies in learning between content areas, groups of students, and grade levels. Using this information, the school determines what needs to be improved, who needs to improve, and how that improvement might be accomplished. This Web tool provides guidance through the steps of data-based decision-making processes and access to useful examples, real school stories, and the best available tools and resources to help schools build effective data-based decision making systems. Ultimately, we hope this tool will provide the kind of ongoing job-embedded assistance necessary to institutionalize data-based school improvement.

Why use this site?

Title I requires states to assist schools identified as in need of improvement under the adequate yearly progress (AYP) provisions. Most challenging are high-poverty, low-performing schools, which seldom have sufficient resources available. To have impact on these schools, states will need to build capacity in their education departments to use, and help schools use, data effectively to improve student results provide technical assistance in using data to guide school improvement efforts and monitor the impact of those efforts on student results This Title I requirement will move state departments into levels of technical assistance that require tools for data analysis, processes for systemic change based on data-driven decision making, and skills for close assistance to schools. This tool can help state departments, school support teams, and technical assistance providers support schools even when they cannot be on-site. The Data-Based Decision Making Web Tool gives school support teams and other technical assistance providers in state departments, districts, and schools a way to support the day-to-day job-embedded work of school improvement. It is not a substitute for school support team guidance. Rather, it can keep the work going between visits or meetings of technical assistance providers and school support teams.

Steps through the School Improvement Process

The DBDM framework on this Web site is divided into the following six areas. Follow them in order or skip directly to an area of interest. Establish a school improvement team. Develop a hypothesis. Gather data to assess needs. Use data. Develop a data-based plan. Monitor progress and document success.

CCSSO and Edvantia (formerly AEL)

This Web tool was created and is maintained through a collaboration between Edvantia and the CCSSO State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards. Edvantia is an education research and development not-for-profit corporation founded in 1966. With core capabilities in research, evaluation, professional development, and technical assistance, Edvantia helps its client-partners succeed in meeting federal and state mandates for high-quality teachers, research-based instructional practices, and school improvement. CCSSO provides collaboration among and support to chief state school officers and their staffs. Among the projects of CCSSO are state collaboratives that focus on specific issues. The Comprehensive Assessment Systems under ESEA Title I State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards (CAS SCASS) addresses issues related to the implementation of Title I requirements for standards, assessments, and adequate yearly progress. Among these issues is the use of assessment results and other data to guide improvement.