Building on the current success of Wisconsin’s Statewide Longitudinal Data System, we seek funding to support activities that provide educators with resources that are both relevant to their needs and guided by research. The technical infrastructure for such a system exists today; this project will allow DPI to identify needs of practitioners across the state, develop a method for evaluating the evidence base for resources that may meet those needs, and finally curate a library of research findings presented in terms relevant to school and district staff as well as exceptional educational resources that reflect the research.
Focus on two Priorities will ensure success for this project. Through Instructional Support, we will enable more informed analysis of existing SLDS and local data. To do this, we will address a specific need for support and professional development related to building capacity for data literacy. Particular focus will be paid to assessment literacy, and, within that lens, the needs of classroom educators will be met by connecting data to formative practices. By finding, tagging, organizing, and where necessary, creating a critical mass of these open education resources, we can jump start the engagement of educators across the state. At the same time, we will partner with practitioners to identify, acquire, and implement data products that are the most meaningful and useful to practitioners within our state data warehouse and reporting environment and forthcoming educator resource portal.
With a mix of current and new in-house research staff, partnerships with education experts within the state, and stakeholders with direct access to educators in the field, we will build Evaluation and Research capability at DPI and in the field to find, evaluate, and produce evidence based recommendations about educational practice. This work will inform and be informed by Instructional Support Outcomes. There is a critical relationship between the work of the two Priorities in this proposal.
