Principal Wilma Culton's professional development in the last few years has had her setting out for Singapore, conferencing in Canada, and bopping over to Berlin to check out what experts and the best educators around the world know about helping kids learn. The head of a primary school just outside Melbourne, Australia, Culton is a prime example…

This article is an excerpt from "A Playbook for Professional Learning: Putting the Standards Into Action" (Learning Forward, 2012). Written by Learning Forward Executive Director Stephanie Hirsh and Scholar Laureate Shirley Hord, "A Playbook for Professional Learning" provides those who work in professional learning with readily accessible…

Teachers in the Federal Way (Wash.) Public Schools had no shortage of student data. Standardized test scores, unit tests, and report card grades were as familiar to educators as reading, writing, and arithmetic. With the onset of statewide testing in the 1990s, data analysis was expanded to cover a multitude of state learning goals in grades 4, 7,…

Improving systematic use of student data to inform the work of teachers, schools, and districts has become a hot topic in education reform. Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning stress better use of data, and particularly student performance data, within an integrated approach to improving practice. While better use of data by…

Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning have the potential to influence educational policy and practice in profound ways for the systems that are courageous enough to take them seriously, and the Data standard is a critical element systemwide. Schools are overwhelmed with data warehouses, colorful charts and graphs, and endless…

Variety may be the spice of life, but in terms of data sources, variety is more than a spice--it is one of the basic food groups. Alternative data sources, such as student interviews and walk-throughs, are essential for a well-balanced diet. Data from test scores alone, whether from norm-referenced or criterion-referenced tests, state, district,…

This paper discusses the importance of evaluating state assessment data in order to improve learning. The Glens Falls City School District in upstate New York began in-depth analyses of state assessment data and Terra Nova scores over the last three years. Teachers and administrators work together in a new way to highlight strengths and weaknesses…

Teachers at Woodlawn Middle School in Long Grove, Illinois are no different than most. They were discouraged by the amount of testing taking place in their classrooms, frustrated with not having the kind of data they needed, and feeling overwhelmed by the data they did have. The teachers wanted to make better schoolwide instructional decisions,…

Educators who thoroughly investigate data, raise questions, examine student learning, test their hypotheses, and then share their findings are mirroring effective math and science instruction. Using collaborative inquiry, data teams can help improve teacher knowledge and help teachers change their practice in ways that will enhance student…

Provides examples of schools and districts nationwide that use data-based decision making effectively to enhance beginning teacher induction, multi-age reading classes, literacy education, tracking of student achievement, ongoing staff development, and school discipline efforts. The programs share a commitment to putting data at the center of…