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Data Use
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Educators and policymakers have access to data from many sources. A key challenge is how to best use the available data to inform decisionmaking. RELs work in partnership with states and districts to 1) conduct original high quality research, 2) provide training, coaching, and technical support, and 3) disseminate high quality research findings to improve data use. A selected list of resources developed by the REL Program appears below.

Publications

  • Program Evaluation Toolkit (REL Central, forthcoming). The Program Evaluation Toolkit will provide resources and tools to support users in conducting their own program evaluations. The toolkit will comprise a series of eight modules that begin at the planning stages of an evaluation and progress to the presentation of findings to stakeholders. Each module will cover a critical step in the evaluation process.
  • Using classification and regression tree (CART) analysis to identify students at risk of adverse outcomes: A guide for state and local data leaders (REL Appalachia, forthcoming). Traditional statistical methods can be difficult to implement or understand, but classification and regression tree (CART) analysis is a type of decision tree that can be used to visually represent a set of rules to identify students of interest. This report will show state and local educators how CART analysis can provide insights into relevant policy questions by describing factors that educators need to consider when developing research questions that are answerable using CART and how to communicate these questions to data analysts.
  • Describing characteristics and outcomes of high school equivalency exam takers in New Jersey (REL Mid-Atlantic, August 2021). The New Jersey Department of Education has requested information about the three High School Equivalency (HSE) exams offered in the state: (1) the GED, (2) the Test Assessing Secondary Completion, and (3) the High School Equivalency Test. This study will offer New Jersey useful information about the characteristics of the test takers, their test performance, and differences among the tests. This will inform oversight of the HSE assessments, including the setting of cut scores and policies that could address barriers to access to some exams for certain groups.
  • Effectiveness of Strategies for Presenting School Report Card Data to Parents (REL Mid-Atlantic, July 2021). The Every Student Succeeds Act requires that state education agencies disseminate school report cards that provide information about school performance, but leaves considerable latitude for how the report cards are designed. The design of information displays like school report cards can have a substantial effect on users. The goal of this study in partnership with Washington DC Public Schools is to provide guidance about how these design choices influence comprehension of school report card contents and user experience.
  • A Guide to Identifying Similar Schools to Support School Improvement (REL Central, July 2021). The report will outline how NDE settled on a distance measure to identify a sample of similar schools, using a variety of characteristics to allow school and district leaders to more accurately understand how their schools are performing relative to their peers. The report will be a useful resource for education leaders who are interested in implementing a similar approach as they seek to support schools in improvement efforts.
  • Early Childhood Data Use Self-Assessment (REL Central, March 2021). The Early Childhood Data Use Self-Assessment will provide early childhood education (ECE) data teams with a research-based self-assessment tool designed to improve the use of child assessment and administrative data.
  • How Nebraska Teachers Use and Perceive Summative, Interim, and Formative Data (REL Central, January 2021). To learn about how Nebraska teachers use and perceive summative, interim, and formative data, the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) surveyed teachers and principals across 353 schools. The results of the study will provide information about how teachers' practices, attitudes, and perceptions regarding data use vary based on Nebraska's school accountability classifications for the 2018/19 school year and teacher characteristics. The study will also describe how administrators' perceptions of teacher data use compare to teachers' reports of their own data use. NDE and Educational Service Unit staff will use the information from the survey to determine how they can support efforts to improve teachers' use of different types of assessment data.
  • An Approach to Using Teacher and Student Data to Understand and Predict Teacher Shortages (REL Central, December 2020). This report will document the collaborative efforts of REL Central and Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to develop and implement the Teacher Predictor Model (TPM), detailing an approach that other stakeholders may adopt or adapt to understand and predict teacher shortages. The report will describe the decisions that potential users need to make when adopting or adapting the TPM and demonstrate how the model makes predictions, using the model that MO DESE partners developed with support from REL Central as an example.
  • Creating and Using Performance Assessments: An Online Course for Practitioners (REL Northeast and Islands, November 2020).This online course will introduce participants to the basic concepts of assessment literacy and then focus on how to develop, score, and use performance assessments within a balanced assessment system. Throughout the course, participants will be able to create and administer their own performance assessment and review it for its technical quality. Participants will receive a certificate of completion upon finishing the course.
  • Continuous Improvement: Toolkit (REL Northeast and Islands, October 2020). Continuous improvement processes engage key players within a system to focus on a specific problem of practice and use a series of iterative cycles to test changes, gather data about the changes, and study the potential influence of these changes on outcomes of interest. This practitioner-friendly toolkit will provide an overview of continuous improvement processes in educational settings, with a focus on the use of Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles. The toolkit will include a customizable workbook, reproducible templates, and short informational videos that education practitioners can use to implement continuous improvement processes in their own schools, districts, or agencies.
  • Examining the Association between Schoolwide Instructional Measures and School-level Student Outcomes in Massachusetts' Low-Performing Schools (REL Northeast & Islands, September 2020). Since 2010, the Massachusetts Department of Early and Secondary Education (ESE) has made a significant investment to develop a coherent, aligned system for supporting and monitoring its low-performing schools. The monitoring process includes collecting schoolwide observation data of classroom instructional practices, which ESE then uses to provide formative feedback to schools on their turnaround practices. This study with ESE is conducting analyses of this schoolwide instructional observation data, collected using Teachstone's Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) tool. Researchers are examining whether the schoolwide CLASS observation data are associated with improved schoolwide student achievement and growth.
  • School discipline data indicators: A guide for districts and schools (REL Northwest, April 2017). This guide is designed to help educators use data to reduce disproportionate rates of suspension and expulsion based on race or ethnicity. It provides examples of selecting and analyzing data to determine whether racial disproportionality exists in a school or district's discipline practices.
  • Analyzing student-level disciplinary data: A guide for districts (REL Northeast and Islands, March 2017). The purpose of this report is to help guide districts in analyzing their own student-level disciplinary data to answer important questions about the use of disciplinary actions. This report, developed in collaboration with the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands Urban School Improvement Alliance, provides information to district personnel about how to analyze their student-level data and answer questions about the use of disciplinary actions, such as whether these actions are disproportionately applied to some student subgroups, and whether there are differences in student academic outcomes across the types of disciplinary actions that students receive. This report identifies several considerations that should be accounted for prior to conducting any analysis of student-level disciplinary data.
  • Exploring District-Level Expenditure-to-Performance Ratios (REL Northeast and Islands, March 2017) Using state education department data from an example state in the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast & Islands Region, researchers created six different expenditure-to-performance ratios and investigated how districts' inclusion in the highest quartile on districts rankings varied according to the expenditure and performance measures used to calculate each ratio.
  • Formative Assessment and Elementary School Student Academic Achievement: A Review of the Evidence (REL Central, February 2017). This comprehensive and systematic review identifies 22 rigorous studies of the effectiveness of formative assessment interventions among elementary students. Results of the study indicate that, overall, formative assessment has a positive effect on student achievement.
  • Benchmarking Education Management Information Systems Across the Federated States of Micronesia. (REL Pacific, November 2016). This report series includes four state-level studies in the Federated States of Micronesia states of Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae, and Yap. The purpose of these studies was to examine the quality of the education management information systems in the Federated States of Micronesia.
  • Guide to Using the Teacher Data Use Survey. (REL Appalachia, October 2016). The Teacher Data Use Survey and accompanying guide provide district and school leaders with a survey instrument that will enable educators to learn more about teachers' use of data, teachers' attitudes toward data, and teachers' perception of supports for using data.
  • How are teacher evaluation data used in five Arizona districts? (REL West, May 2016). Recent teacher evaluation reforms instituted across the country have sought to yield richer information about educators' strengths and limitations and guide decisions about targeted opportunities for professional growth. This study describes how results from new multiple-measure teacher evaluations were being used in 2014/15 in five school districts in Arizona
  • An Educator's Guide to Questionnaire Development (REL Central, January 2016). Educators have many decisions to make and it's important that they have the right data to inform those decisions and access to questionnaires that can gather that data. This guide, developed by REL Central and based on work done through separate projects with the Wyoming Office of Public Instruction and the Nebraska Department of Education, provides educators with a process for developing questionnaires.
  • Instructional improvement cycle: A teacher's toolkit for collecting and analyzing data on instructional strategies (REL Central, May 2015). This toolkit, developed by REL Central in collaboration with York Public Schools in Nebraska, provides a process and tools to help teachers use data from their classroom assessments to evaluate promising practices. The toolkit provides teachers with guidance on how to deliberately apply and study one classroom strategy over the course of one unit and systematically document and compare results to consider the effects of a given instructional strategy on student learning.
  • Toolkit for a Workshop on Building a Culture of Data Use (REL Northeast and Islands, April 2015). The Culture of Data Use Workshop Toolkit helps school and district teams apply research to practice as they establish and support a culture of data use in their educational setting. The field-tested workshop toolkit guides teams through a set of structured activities to develop an understanding of data-use research in schools and to analyze examples from practice.
  • Practitioner Data Use in Schools: Workshop Toolkit (REL Northeast and Islands, December 2014). The Practitioner Data Use Workshop Toolkit is designed to help practitioners systematically and accurately use data to inform their teaching practice. The toolkit includes an agenda, slide deck, participant workbook, and facilitator's guide and covers the following topics: developing data literacy, engaging in a cycle of inquiry, accessing and analyzing available data, identifying and creating student goals, and using data to make action plans about instructional decisions.

Videos

  • An Educator's Guide to Questionnaire Development (REL Central). This short video describes a guide offering a five-step process to design effective questionnaires that follow research-based guidelines and can be used to survey students, teachers, or parents. The guide also lists resources on sample selection, questionnaire administration, and data collection, analysis, and presentation.
  • An Introduction to the Instructional Improvement Cycle: A Teacher's Toolkit (REL Central). REL Central's new toolkit developed in collaboration with York Public Schools in Nebraska, provides teachers with a process and tools to deliberately study a single classroom teaching strategy. The toolkit includes a preprogrammed spreadsheet that determines the significance of test results between classes taught with and without a new instructional strategy.
  • Data Coaching to Advance Teacher Mentoring in Boston Public Schools (REL Northeast and Islands). REL Northeast & Islands and Boston Public Schools partnered to develop a logic model and improve data collection to advance the effectiveness of a district-led mentoring program for beginning teachers.
  • Ethan Cancell, Brockton, MA, Public Schools (REL Northeast and Islands) Urban School Improvement Alliance at REL Northeast & Islands Core Planning Group member Ethan Cancell, Executive Director, Accessibility & Accountability, Brockton, MA, Public Schools.
  • Formative Assessment and Elementary School Student Academic Achievement (REL Central). This video discusses a comprehensive and systematic review which identified 22 rigorous studies of the effectiveness of formative assessment interventions among elementary students. Results of the study indicate that, overall, formative assessment has a positive effect on student achievement.
  • Implementing a Continuous Improvement Process (REL Appalachia). REL Appalachia developed this series of short videos to orient users to a collection of continuous improvement resources to support education leaders in Kentucky as they strengthen implementation of evidence-based practices to boost student achievement. Dive into these videos to learn more about the continuous improvement process:
    Video 1 (~ 2 min.): Introduction
    Video 1 Descriptive Transcript

    Video 2 (~ 4 min.): Set the Foundation
    Video 2 Descriptive Transcript

    Video 3 (~ 4 min.): Plan
    Video 3 Descriptive Transcript

    Video 4 (~ 3 min.): Do
    Video 4 Descriptive Transcript

    Video 5 (~ 3 min.): Study
    Video 5 Descriptive Transcript

    Video 6 (~ 4 min.): Act
    Video 6 Descriptive Transcript
  • Implementing a Data Literate Culture in a Rural Setting (REL Southwest). REL Southwest provided technical assistance through the Oklahoma Rural Schools Research Alliance to Homer Elementary School, Byng Public Schools, Oklahoma, as part of the Educators and Data Use project. The focus of the technical assistance was the effective use of data to inform classroom instruction. The ongoing, collaborative professional learning consisted of two in-person training sessions followed by monthly virtual meetings with the teachers and principals. Through the vision and leadership of the principals, all Homer Elementary School teachers became dedicated to ongoing, collaborative professional learning with a focus on using data to improve student learning.
  • Implementing the Instructional Improvement Cycle Toolkit: Teachers Reflect on Their Action Research (REL Central). Teachers reflect on their action research. The Instructional Improvement Cycle Toolkit guides teachers through the process of selecting, testing, and adjusting instructional strategies. The toolkit was created in collaboration with teachers from York Public Schools in York, Nebraska.
  • Pacific Education Leaders on the Optimizing Education Data Systems Video. (REL Pacific). This video provides testimonials from Pacific region education and civic leaders about the REL Pacific Optimizing Education Data Systems video. Interviewees include Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Commissioner of Education Dr. Rita Sablan, Palau Minister of Education Sinton Soalablai, and Micronesia Coordinator of the Migrant Resource Center Emeliana Musrasrik.
  • PDE Data Summit: Using data to identify at-risk students. (REL Mid-Atlantic). During the 2015 Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) Data Summit, panelist Joetta L. Britvich, Principal, South Middle School, Albert Gallatin Area School District, describes how South Middle School uses data to identify at-risk students.
  • Reading School District's use of data to go from fiscally distressed to sound footing (REL Mid-Atlantic). During the 2015 Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) Data Summit, panelist Dr. John J. George, Executive Director, Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, describes the transition of the Reading School District and how it used data to improve its finances.
  • Study Findings: Data Collection and Use in Early Childhood Programs, Evidence from the Northeast (REL Northeast and Islands). Early childhood education programs face increasing pressures to collect data, about both teachers and children, and to use those data to make decisions. Research supports the potential value of using data in education settings for multiple purposes, but little is known about whether or how early childhood education programs use data for these purposes.
  • Teacher Effectiveness Data Use (REL West). This video-based workshop from the REL West and the Center for Great Teachers and Leaders builds the capacity of district and school leaders to better understand, analyze, and apply teacher effectiveness data to make strategic decisions regarding teacher assignment, leadership, and professional development, and also helps facilitate local planning around the use of these data.
  • The Promise of Improvement Science: One District's Vision (REL West). In this audio interview, REL West Senior Research Associate and partnership lead for the Arizona Literacy Partnership Lenay Dunn discusses with Sola Takahashi, REL West Improvement Science Specialist, and Steve Holmes, Superintendent of Sunnyside School District in Arizona, their vision for using an improvement science framework to achieve the district's student achievement goals. Learn about how improvement science can be applied in an education setting, and how Superintendent Holmes is cultivating a culture of learning to facilitate improvement efforts across his district.
  • Understanding Research Findings Part 2: Research Designs (REL Central). This brief video explains three basic types of research designs through a description, examples, and limitations. These three types of research designs are descriptive research, correlational research, and experimental research.

Archived Webinars

  • Introducing New Handle With Care Materials: Monitoring Implementation and Student Outcomes in Schools (REL Appalachia, October 14, 2021). Is your school, district, or organization looking to improve support for students experiencing trauma, increase use of data-driven decisionmaking for program improvement, and integrate continuous improvement into your culture? This session showcases an approach to improve school-based supports for students experiencing trauma through a freely available program, Handle With Care, that is designed to create a more inclusive and supportive learning environment for all students. The presenters share tools and protocols to support leaders to use data to document and monitor school-based supports for students.
  • Algebra I and College Preparatory Diploma Outcomes Among Virginia Students: Findings and Discussion (REL Appalachia, October 5, 2021). The National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics Annual Conference focuses on important issues for leaders in mathematics education. This year's NCSM conference featured a virtual component, with a session presentation from REL Appalachia staff, who shared outcomes from a REL Appalachia study of mathematics coursetaking pathways of students who completed Algebra in grades 7-9 in Virginia. The study compared outcomes for students who achieved the same proficiency levels on their state mathematics assessment in grade 5. The session explored how pathways differ for various student populations, as well as the implications for policy and practice.
  • Is this Online Learning Program Affordable? A Toolkit to Analyze the Cost Feasibility of Supplemental Online Learning Programs (REL Appalachia, October 5, 2021). This session provided information about how cost-feasibility analysis can inform the decision-making process around piloting, initiating, scaling up, or sustaining supplemental online learning programs. Through hands-on activities, participants learn how to use the Cost-Feasibility Analysis Toolkit to facilitate their own analysis.
  • Personalizing Instruction to Address COVID-19 Learning Gaps (REL Central, July 2020). This virtual quick chat shares options and supports for personalizing instruction to meet the needs of students who have had their learning disrupted. Presenters discuss topics including installing building supports, analyzing data, and defining student expectations, as well as actionable personalized instructional strategies for teachers.
  • Using Assessments to Identify and Address COVID-19 Learning Gaps (REL Central, June 2020). This webinar presentation shares methods and strategies for using assessments to identify the needs of students following social distancing measures taken to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The presentation shares strategies to support state and local education agency participants in developing a back-to-school assessment plan.
  • Refining Your Remote Learning Strategies Using a Data-Driven Approach: The Evidence to Insights Coach (REL Mid-Atlantic, April 2020). Schools and districts are facing the challenge of transitioning all of their students to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This approach to learning is new, and it is important to figure out quickly and efficiently what works in this evolving landscape. This REL Mid-Atlantic webinar discusses the Evidence to Insights Coach, a free tool that districts and schools can use to test and identify—in real time—which online learning approaches work best for their students. It helps practitioners lead their own program evaluations through intuitive design and automated analytics.
  • Using Existing Data to Create New Diagnostic Measures for States and Districts (REL Mid-Atlantic, April 2020). The data available to states and school districts has exploded, creating new opportunities to develop measures that can be used at the student, educator, school, and system levels. But most states lack the capacity and resources to take full advantage of their data for diagnosis and improvement. Research-to-practice partnerships address this challenge, connecting educators and policymakers with researchers who provide analytic support and help education agencies build capacity to conduct their own analyses. This webinar highlights three partnerships between state and local policymakers and the Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic that used existing data to develop new measures.
  • Supporting the Evaluation of Early Childhood Educators Webinar (REL Central, August 2019). This webinar presents state evaluation and support systems for early childhood educators. During the webinar, presenters discuss the report State Teacher Evaluation Systems: Fifty State Scan on Resources for Early Childhood Teachers and how states have addressed evaluating and supporting the knowledge and skills of their early childhood educators. Finally, REL Central and the Colorado Department of Education provide a review of a resource supporting the evaluation and growth of early childhood educators in Colorado.
  • Rural Data Use Webinar Series (REL West, 2017-2019). The REL West California Rural Partnerships Alliance hosted a series of webinars focused on supporting rural cross-sector career pathways partnerships to improve their data-based decisionmaking. Webinar 1 highlighted the challenges that these partnerships face and identified resources and tools to improve cross-sector data use, sharing, and capacity development. Webinar 2 examined the following question: How can data be used as a catalyst for regional conversations around high-demand and high-wage career pathways? Webinar 3 shared strategies and resources for advancing and strengthening regional, cross-sector career pathways work in California. Webinar 4 was designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of rural and rural-serving career pathway partnerships around data sharing and data use.
  • Using Learning Huddles to Improve Teaching and Learning (REL West, September 25, 2018). This webinar introduces the "learning huddle," short, grade-level meetings where teachers collaborate to improve their practice by reflecting on their instruction and classroom data.
  • Using Attendance Data for Decisionmaking (REL West, April 26, 2018). This webinar addresses the importance of accurately tracking student attendance data and how it can be used to make decisions in policy and practice to support students who are chronically absent get back on track with their attendance.
  • Data-Driven Implementation of Tiered Interventions with English Learners (REL Northeast and Islands, 2018). This three-part workshop series was designed to engage teams of educators in Connecticut in understanding how to effectively implement response to intervention (RTI), or scientific research-based interventions (SRBI), with English learner students. Participants learned how to use appropriate, multiple, and varied data types to accurately identify the need for special education services among English learners.
    • Session 1 (February 1) provided background on RTI and English learners, including collaborative, data-driven identification of students' needs, as well as strategies for, and practical examples of, implementing Tier I supports.
    • Session 2 (March 1) reviewed the collaborative use of data for distinguishing between the sources of students' difficulties as well as modifications for screening and monitoring progress appropriate for English learners.
    • Session 3 (March 22) explored how long-term, team-based educator collaboration can improve data-driven decisions regarding identification of appropriate interventions for English learners.
  • Building a System of Great Schools: The What, So What, and Now What? (REL Southwest, October 24, 2017). This REL Southwest webinar, recorded October 24, 2017, presents actionable guidance on how to build a system of great schools through school portfolio management. The webinar recording provides an overview of the research surrounding school portfolio management, followed by an engaging discussion around defining school quality, mapping school quality to potential school interventions, and orchestrating an annual decisionmaking cycle to ensure that school interventions maximize impact for students. Cleveland Metropolitan School District serves as an example of how one district is currently implementing these elements to drive school improvement, and the presentation offers an overview of the Texas System of Great Schools Network, as well.
  • Leveraging Postsecondary Data to Increase College Access (REL Northeast and Islands, September 20, 2017) This webinar explores recent research on the ways states and districts are using administrative postsecondary data, including to track graduates' postsecondary enrollment, persistence, and success. Included in the presentation are remarks from Dr. Benjamin Castleman, who discusses a low-cost, short-cycle randomized controlled trial that used postsecondary data to assess the effectiveness of an inexpensive, text message-based college-access program that aims to reduce "summer melt."
  • Creating a Common Understanding of the Formative Assessment Process (REL Central, August 2016). This webinar describes formative assessment as a process used by educators to identify learning targets, check for understanding, facilitate student involvement, analyze evidence, and provide and use feedback. In addition, it considers research-based formative assessment strategies as used in classroom practice.
  • Building a Better Survey (REL Central, April 2016). This webinar presents important information on survey development. Presenters discuss characteristics of good survey items, the use of cognitive interviewing to improve survey items, and how to test survey data for reliability. In addition, different types of validity and how statistical tests and modeling can be used to examine survey data for construct validity are reviewed.
  • Skill-Builder Webinar: How to Facilitate the Practitioner Data Use Workshop with REL Resources (REL Northeast and Islands, September 15, 2015). This Skill-Builder webinar focuses on the facilitation, organization, and resources necessary to conduct the workshop in person. Facilitators and coaches learn strategies for selecting data, conducting workshop protocols, and leading discussion.
  • Effective Use of Data to Address Individual Student Needs in Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) (REL West, 2015). This webinar series is designed to address specific challenges that alliance schools within the Middle Grades School Climate Alliance (MGSCA) have as they investigate and make improvements in school climate. These events build on the MGSCA's long-term goals to improve school climate in participating middle schools and to facilitate the systematic use of data-based inquiry practices at the school and district levels.
  • The Kentucky Longitudinal Data System (KLDS): Connecting Education and Outcomes (REL Appalachia, August 31, 2016). REL Appalachia partnered with the Kentucky Center for Education and Workforce Statistics (KCEWS) to host this webinar on the capabilities, products, and services available to Kentucky school districts and practitioners through KCEWS and the Kentucky Longitudinal Data System (KLDS).
  • Developing a Culture of Data Use to Maximize the Use of an Early Warning System (REL Northeast and Islands, August 9, 2016) Nancy Gerzon provides an introduction to five elements essential to creating and sustaining a culture of data use, with a focus on early warning systems and the Culture of Data Use Framework.
  • Massachusetts, Minnesota, and the State Role in Supporting Early Warning System Implementation (REL Northeast and Islands, May 18, 2016) Susan Therriault, REL Northeast & Islands, provides an overview of the state role in EWS implementation, along with Kate Sandel, Massachusetts Department of Education, and John Gimpl, Minnesota Department of Education. They discuss their processes for organizing, implementing, monitoring, and adjusting their EWSs and the supports (team members, training, guidance, resources) available in their states to support EWS work and confront challenges to implementation
  • How to Facilitate the Logic Models Workshop for Program Design and Evaluation (REL Northeast and Islands, December 9, 2015) This webinar is a guide for educational leaders who want to introduce logic models for program design, implementation, and evaluation using a workshop toolkit available from REL Northeast & Islands. During the webinar, the authors of the toolkit focus on the facilitation, organization, and resources necessary to conduct the workshop virtually or in person.
  • Coherent and Comprehensive Assessment Systems (REL Northeast and Islands, October 15, 2015) Margaret Heritage explores how a coherent system with a range of assessment types can provide different users at different levels with the right kinds of data at the right level of detail to help with decision making in support of student achievement.
  • Skill-Builder Webinar: Building a Culture of Data Use in Rural Districts (REL Northeast and Islands, May 19, 2015). This Skill-Builder Workshop Webinar, hosted by the Northeast Rural Districts Research Alliance, presented the key characteristics of a data-using culture in schools and districts. The workshop explored a "Culture of Data Use Framework" through an analysis of best practices, barriers to implementation, and policy and guidance questions.
  • Implementing a Data Literate Culture at the School and Teacher Levels II – Introduction (REL Southwest, April 2, 2015). This bridge event webinar, Implementing a Data Literate Culture at the School and Teacher Levels II, was hosted by the REL Southwest. The webinar is in four parts.
  • Intermediate Database Concepts Workshop Presented by REL Mid-Atlantic at the PDE Data Summit (REL Mid-Atlantic, March 25, 2015). Building off the Basic Database Concepts Workshop presented by Dr. Nancy Smith, Kasia Razynska, and Dr. Teresa Duncan, this presentation demonstrates how the use of standard data management processes can improve data quality and better inform school and district decisionmaking.
  • Data Dashboards Using Excel and MS presented by REL Mid-Atlantic at the PDE Data Summit (REL Mid-Atlantic, March 2015). The goal of this workshop presented by Dr. Rosemarie O'Conner and Gabriel Hartmann is to expand attendees' knowledge and expertise in designing dashboards. The dashboards can be used to communicate with students and parents regularly and efficiently.
  • Implementing a Data Literate Culture at the School and Teacher Levels I (REL Southwest, October 29, 2014). This webinar, the first in a series of two, examines how to use data effectively at the school, classroom, and student levels—with a focus on the rural school setting. The webinar is in three parts.
  • Data Informed Action for Dropout Prevention (REL Northeast and Islands, October 10, 2014). In collaboration with the Puerto Rico Department of Education, the Puerto Rico Research Alliance for Dropout Prevention at REL Northeast & Islands hosted this webinar on the use of data in support of dropout prevention.
  • Foundations of Data Use for School Boards (REL Northeast and Islands, December 12, 2014). This Skill-Builder Workshop hosted by the Urban School Improvement Alliance at REL Northeast & Islands provided school-board and school-committee members with the opportunity to consider both effective data-use practices for decision making and the importance of supporting a strong data-use culture within their respective districts.
  • Using Data to Inform Instruction: Building the Capacity of Educators (REL Northeast and Islands, November 24, 2014). In collaboration with the US Virgin Islands Department of Education, the US Virgin Islands College and Career Readiness Research Alliance at REL Northeast & Islands hosted this webinar drawing on the IES Practice Guide "Using Student Achievement Data to Support Instructional Decision-Making."
  • Engaging Families in the Assessment Process and Use of Data: An Early Childhood Example (August 12, 2014). This webinar examines the strategies the Research Program Partnership at the University of Kansas employs to foster the use of early childhood data at multiple levels, particularly with families. The webinar is in three parts:
  • The "Long Now": Local Data in an Era of State Longitudinal Data Systems (REL Northeast and Islands, April 30, 2014).Dr. Neal Gibson, Director of the Arkansas Research Center, and members of the Urban School Improvement Alliance at REL Northeast & Islands in this webinar examined both the potential and the traps of longitudinal data systems; meeting FERPA requirements; and creating secure, private, and agile databases that require a minimum of capital investment and humanpower to maintain.
  • Implementing a Computer Data System: The Human Side (Apr. 1, 2014). Jeffrey C. Wayman, Ph.D., an award-winning researcher and education consultant, draws from a decade of research to discuss the often-ignored human side of data system implementation—supporting educators in accessing and applying the data they need to solve real-world problems. The webinar is in two parts:
  • Our State Has an SLDS—Now What? (REL Southeast and REL Southwest, February 25, 2014). This 4-part bridge event webinar was co-presented by the Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast and the Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest on February 25, 2014.
  • The Data-Informed District (REL Southwest, December 5, 2013). Drawing upon his 3-year study with three Texas school districts, Dr. Wayman discusses five components of the Data-Informed District as well as the research base behind the components and the barriers and facilitators for implementing them.
  • Bridge Event – Data Collection and Use: An Early Childhood Perspective (REL Northeast and Islands, August 13, 2013). At this webinar, hosted by the Early Childhood Education Research Alliance, a presentation of the research is accompanied by perspectives from an early childhood education specialist at the Rhode Island Department of Education and a Rhode Island preschool program director.
  • Organizational Learning and Data Use in Schools and Districts: Strategies for Improvement (REL Northeast and Islands, July 24, 2013). Effective learning organizations need strong connections and trust among teachers, principals, and other school leaders, but Kara Finnigan has found in her own research on district-level social network analysis that connectedness often is rare in low-performing districts, and that high turnover contributes to this problem.
  • The Data-Informed District: Research on Using Data to Inform Practice (REL Northeast and Islands, September 20, 2012) The Urban School Improvement Alliance invited Dr. Jeffery Wayman, assistant professor of educational administration at The University of Texas at Austin, to present his research on school and district data use as part of its mission to help urban districts in the Northeast and Islands Region better access and use data to improve their low-performing schools.

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For more resources in ERIC on the topic of Data Use, click here.

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