The use of data to inform decisionmaking and practice at the school and district levels is now a common feature of reform efforts. Advances in districts' technological capacities have produced data systems that allow a flow of data to and from schools, often to the point of creating an overwhelming flood of information. To make the flow of…

The articles in this issue call for a deeper and better understanding of data, their use, the conditions that are most conducive for using data well, how individuals and groups of practitioners make sense of the data before them, and the intended and unintended consequences of data use for school improvement. The authors together craft important…

This case study of one middle school focuses on improving teachers' skills in data-driven decision making through analysis of student work and their own professional practice. The expectation that schools will make adequate yearly progress has pushed evaluation practice down to the teacher level, where teachers are asked to analyze and…

Information, a process model, and resources are presented in this guidebook to help staff and administrators design, initiate, and implement a local indicator system that will provide them with hard data to aid decision making. The introduction defines quality indicators and the indicator system and explains the system's local policymaking uses.…

Examined the usefulness of performance indicators in campus decision making at 20 institutions with Carnegie Baccalaureate II classification using hypothesis testing and case-study approaches. Performance measures most commonly cited as measures of financial viability were of limited use for specific policy development, but were most useful within…