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…

Data can be a powerful tool for self-evaluation, goal setting, and advocacy in the school library. Regardless of the grade level or the size of the student body, any school library has meaningful data to mine and learn from. Basic data such as circulation numbers can impact a myriad of areas relevant to student learning such as collection…

This article describes a language arts teacher's two-tiered way of using assessment data, which uses both standardized assessment data and teacher-created "skills" inventories. Standardized test data may help see where a learner performed in a previous year on items that often do not line up too well with future content. Standardized…

The article deals with the interplay between learning analytics and massive open online courses (MOOCs) and provides a conceptual framework to situate ongoing research in the MOOC and learning analytics innovation cycle (MOLAC framework). The MOLAC framework is organized on three levels: On the micro-level, the data collection and analytics…

Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) is the evaluation and assessment of learning gained outside a traditional academic environment for college credit, certification, or advanced standing toward further education or training. The term PLA encompasses a wide spectrum of assessment methods, including, but not limited to, credit by examination, challenge…

In September and October of 2017, the Center on Education Policy conducted a survey of state deputy superintendents of education or their designees to learn about states' early efforts in implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Most of those survey findings are described in the CEP publication "Planning for Progress: States…

Teacher preparation programs have both a desire and a responsibility to demonstrate, with affirmative evidence, that teacher education makes a difference in PreK-12 student learning. Program faculty need good data to make decisions about the progress of students, whom to recommend for state licensure, and how to improve teacher education. This…

In recent years, education data have become both more easily accessible and more important than ever to decisions about K-12 policies and practice. Under the "Every Student Succeeds Act" (ESSA), states are required to publish data on how students, including English Learners (ELs), are performing in areas such as reading, math, and…

The Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB's) case study series highlights best practices High Schools That Work (HSTW) network schools and districts are implementing to better prepare students for further studies and careers. Lee's Summit West (LSW) High School near Kansas City, Missouri, boasts of a 99 percent graduation rate; 93 percent of…

Effective teaching has long been an issue of national concern, but in recent years focus on the effectiveness of programs to produce high-quality teachers has sharpened. Long-standing achievement gaps persist despite large-scale legislative changes at the federal and state levels, and American students continue to show poorer performance on…

Taiwanese students consistently rank near the top on international exams on mathematics and science. In 2007, Taiwan recorded the highest TIMSS math score for eighth grade. The central education agency in Taiwan publishes detailed mathematics curriculum guidelines, which textbooks and national exams follow closely. In May each year, all ninth…

In most PISA-participating countries and economies, the average socio-economic background of students who attend privately managed schools is more advantaged than that of those who attend public schools. Yet in some countries, there is little difference in the socio-economic profiles between public and private schools. Why? An analysis of PISA…

When geometry and career and technical education (CTE) are cotaught in the process of building a house, learning is enhanced, test scores improve, and there's a waiting list of students wanting in. Geometry in Construction is a class instructed by the authors--a CTE teacher (Scott Burke) and a mathematics teacher (Tom Moore). While Moore instructs…

The 2011 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 47th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The "Digest" has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field…

A new study by a public and labor economist suggests that "value added" methods for determining the effectiveness of classroom teachers are built on some shaky assumptions and may be misleading. The study, due to be published in February in the "Quarterly Journal of Economics," is the first of a handful of papers now in the…