Educators have long been awash in a sea of standardized test score data, with the understanding that their engagement with these data will lead to improvement in teaching and learning. But, in practice, these data have often been too infrequent, too lagging, and too distant from day-to-day practice to inform actionable next steps. To improve…

Building a better data culture can be the path to better results and greater equity in schools. But what do we mean by data? Your students are not just statistics. They aren't simply a set of numbers or faceless dots on a proficiency scale. They are vibrant collections of experiences, thoughts, perspectives, emotions, wants, and dreams. And taken…

The purpose of this essay is to discuss the impact of the EdD experience on one teacher's understanding of data and research. From a first-person narrative, the author shares how learning to collect and analyze qualitative data has the potential to change the way teachers can engage with "data-driven decision making" in a high school…

Those asked to make valid decisions with data don't have the technical knowledge to understand nuance around data quality, assessment aims, and statistical limitations that influence how they should interpret the data. This reality is what Greg Thompson, Leslie Rutkowski, and David Rutkowski call the validity paradox. Educators can surmount this…

This article provides teachers with a toolkit for assessing students in the context of data-based individualization (DBI) in mathematics. Assessing students is a critical component of DBI because it provides teachers with information about what they may need to modify in their instructional programs. In this article, we provide teachers with…

Written with faculty in mind, "Assessment by Design" is a practical resource that will also be useful to student affairs staff and administrators dedicated to using assessment to improve learning in curricular and co-curricular settings. This book presents the Cycle of Assessment as a framework that supports assessment in service of…

Institutions of higher education are asked to consider how their work can advance equity in institutional outcomes. Assessment, too, has been asked to consider the ways in which traditional student assessment "privileges and validates certain types of learning and evidence of learning over others" (Montenegro and Jankowski 2017, p. 5).…

Exploratory data analysis (EDA), data visualization, and visual analytics are essential for understanding and analyzing complex datasets. In this project, we explored these techniques and their applications in data analytics. The case discusses Tableau, a powerful data visualization tool, and Google BigQuery, a cloud-based data warehouse that…

Quality, timely, purpose-driven education in emergencies (EiE) data can enable more effective response to education needs in crisis settings and strengthen system resilience. However, a growing body of evidence points to a number of problems related to the production, sharing, and use of EiE data within education information management systems…

Most school and district leaders have a wealth of information available to them before, during, and after the hiring process, but they might not analyze it regularly or use it to inform their recruitment and retention plans. However, using data strategically is key to positively impacting teacher recruitment and retention. This brief discusses…

Data-informed decision-making is no longer an optional or occasional practice, as higher education professionals now routinely respond to calls for accountability by providing data to show how their work impacts students. Institutions are operating with a culture that, at a minimum, includes the use of descriptive and diagnostic analyses to assess…

In today's data-driven and data-informed educational landscape, leaders face increasing pressure to make decisions and present results based on what appear to be comprehensive statistical analyses. However, the ethical implications of these responsibilities can be complex, particularly when statistical results carry the potential to be…

The University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC) is an urban research university with a special emphasis on fostering diversity. In 2021, the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence created a Faculty Fellows program to develop comprehensive resources and support in four areas: teaching and learning, service and engagement, research and creativity,…

Despite vital professional development support through the National Art Education Association's Data Visualization Working Group and other scholars' engagement with the topic in the literature, pedagogical literature that connects contemporary data visualization methods to art teaching practices is limited. While acknowledging that many of us have…

Instructional leadership is a complex dimension, which requires that principals possess expertise in goal setting, leading the instructional program, and creating the conditions for a successful school environment. Effective instructional leaders manage the instructional program by planning, coordinating, and evaluating the work of teachers and…