Using Student Achievement Data to Support Instructional Decision Making

Principals need to convey a clear schoolwide vision for using data to guide instructional decision making. A strong culture of data use is critical to ensuring routine, consistent, and effective data-based decision making. Principals can form a data team that serves as a team of advisors on data use throughout the school. The data team can represent a range of stakeholders such as an administrator, two to three teachers across different grade levels or content areas, one to two classroom support professionals such as a coach or special education teacher, and a district-level staff member who works with data. The composition of a data team is likely to vary depending on needs, objectives, and staffing and other school constraints. A data team comprising an assortment of stakeholders can solicit input from and work with the entire school community. A data team may write the school plan describing how the school will use data to support schoolwide goals and defining key concepts critical to teaching and learning (e.g. achievement, data, evidence, collaboration). However, a data team does not hold staff accountable for using data, supervise the data-related activities, or provide expert advice. Rather, they can provide leadership through modeling the use of data.