Data--done right--has the power to put schools on the path to true change. Rely on this research-backed resource to help you kickstart, implement, and sustain data-informed school-wide transformation. There are many ways to use student data, and the author's 10 steps offer practical, clear methods for establishing a data team, collecting relevant…

Purpose: This article presents a definition and rationale for evidence-based reform in education, and a discussion of the current state of evidence-based research, focusing on China, the U.S., and the UK. Design/Approach/Methods: The article contrasts the state of educational research in the U.S., the UK, and China, world leaders in evidence-based…

The policy decisions of state, district and school educators affect the extent to which students have access to high-quality practices. This is especially relevant for students with disabilities and their families. This article summarizes a presentation made at the 2019 AAIDD conference and proposes an operational role for policy makers. Two…

The past informs the future. It achieves this in two ways: first, by providing the context in which decisions are made, and, second, by delivering the various experiences that enable discovery of what does and does not work. As the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system has evolved, the institutional structures and frameworks…

This chapter provides an example of how one university's institutional research office played an active role in using data from institutional studies to guide the university toward courses ripe for change, faculty toward successful teaching strategies, students toward successful learning behaviors, and the university toward assessing the impact of…

Northwestern New Mexico is widely known as the Four Corners region, and for locals, it is also known as the Checkerboard area--a patchwork of sections owned by the federal government, private citizens, and the Navajo reservation. Oil and gas fields are spread out along the arid mesas, but below is fertile farmland, irrigated by the San Juan River.…

Teachers in Catholic schools are not immune from pressures to improve students' scores on high stakes tests, and standards-based education is not new to Catholic schools. Nationally, many public school systems have moved to implement Common Core State Standards (CCSS) or other similar standards. Assessment, in turn, has been tied to these…

Through this paper, we explore "unbundling," the separation of various aspects of education, resources, teaching and assessment (Ossiannilsson et al., 2015) and "rebundling," where these activities are "recombined into new configurations with little loss of functionality" (Ge et al., 2004, p. 1). We chart the…

There is a vast amount of research on what goes on in schools, but how can school leaders sort credible findings from dubious claims and use these to make informed decisions that benefit their schools? How can abstract ideas from research be translated into dynamic plans for action? This book is a practical guide to evidence-based school…

Data-informed instructional methods offer tremendous promise for increasing the effectiveness of teaching, learning, and schooling. Yet-to-be-developed data science approaches have the potential to dramatically advance instruction for every student and to enhance learning for people of all ages. Next steps that emerged from a recent National…

Effective, coordinated state-level systems to support the most vulnerable children and youth have never been more important, as responsibilities increasingly devolve from the federal government to the states. This report is a snapshot of the national landscape of child and youth policy coordinating bodies. It is a source of inspiration to continue…

This chapter reviews actionable data use--both as an umbrella term and as a specific concept--developed in three different traditions that data/information can inform and guide P-20 educational practice toward better outcomes. The literatures reviewed are known as data-driven decision making (DDDM), education data mining (EDM), and learning…

The national education reform agenda has rapidly expanded to include attention to continuous improvement research in education. The purpose of this analysis is to propose a new approach to "developmental evaluation" aimed at building a foundation for continuous improvement in large-scale school improvement networks, on the argument that…

This guide is designed to help State Education Agencies (SEAs) conduct self-studies to identify interventions that may be implemented in schools needing improvement or that require comprehensive or targeted support. The interventions selected should be those that are most relevant and appropriate based on the needs of schools, with the strongest…

The U.S. system of graduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has served the nation and its science and engineering enterprise extremely well. Over the course of their education, graduate students become involved in advancing the frontiers of discovery, as well as in making significant contributions to the…