The recommendations in this brief create a framework for using data effectively to make instructional decisions. The availability of student-level data for educators has pushed forward the movement to strengthen the role of data to guide instruction and improve student learning. While improvements in technology and assessments, as well as recent…

Background: Data use has been promoted as a panacea for instructional improvement. However, the field lacks a detailed understanding of how teachers actually use assessment data to inform instruction and the factors that shape this process. Purpose: This article provides a review of literature on teachers' use of assessment data to inform…

This research focuses on the everyday challenge in academic learning of assessment, and argues that academic buoyancy is a key factor in academic success. To scaffold students' learning and effectively support academic buoyancy, there is arguably a need for a better understanding of: (i) what students find most and least useful in their assessment…

In this book, best-selling author Susan M. Brookhart helps teachers and administrators understand the critical elements and nuances of assessment data and how that information can best be used to inform improvement efforts in the school or district. Readers will learn: (1) What different kinds of data can--and cannot--tell us about student…

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…

MOOCs attract a large number of learners with largely unknown diversity in terms of motivation, ability, and goals. To understand more about learners in highly technical engineering MOOCs, this study investigates patterns of learners' (n = 337) behaviour and performance in the Nanophotonic Modelling MOOC, offered through nanoHUB-U. The authors…

This article discusses five generally accepted reasons to use data as a part of an educator's ongoing professional practice. Of course, there are many other more specific reasons one might look at data, but these five cover the overarching need in an educational setting. The five major purposes for using data are: (1) To enhance understanding and…

"Data Wise: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Assessment Results to Improve Teaching and Learning" presents a clear and carefully tested blueprint for school leaders. It shows how examining test scores and other classroom data can become a catalyst for important schoolwide conversations that will enhance schools' abilities to capture…

"Data Wise: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Assessment Results to Improve Teaching and Learning" presents a clear and carefully tested blueprint for school leaders. It shows how examining test scores and other classroom data can become a catalyst for important schoolwide conversations that will enhance schools' abilities to capture…

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…

In this classic introduction to educational and psychological measurement, Thorndike and Thorndike-Christ provide all of the pertinent information future professionals need to know in order to develop the skills to use test information wisely. Incorporating standard measurement concepts as they apply to both educational and psychological…

Despite repeated calls for educators to get more instructional mileage out of the assessment data they have at hand, two deterrents typically stand in the way of most educators' effective use of test data. First, there's a missing "realization", and second, there's a missing "skill". Educators who possess both this realization and this skill will…

Co-teaching occurs when a special educator and a general education teacher teach together in an inclusive classroom. Co-teaching has been adopted across the United States as the solution to meet the legal mandates of No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act. These pieces of legislation require schools to have…

This study examined how 26 teachers in two elementary schools used performance-charted data provided by a technical support agency. Although teachers did not report using the data extensively to make explicit instructional decisions, most teachers reported using the data to verify their own observations about student progress and as a…

This information sheet describes General Curriculum Options, one of four streams or subject areas offered in the Certificates in General Education for Adults (CGEA) in Australia. The first seven learning outcomes are based on seven key competencies: collecting, analyzing, and organizing information; planning and organizing activities;…