DID Resource Kit for States, Districts and Schools

The District Role
Districts round out state data by administering their own assessments -- often for diagnosis, placement (e.g., reading readiness), and monitoring. Benchmark (or common) assessments provide quick feedback to assess student progress on standards (for re-teaching and focusing teachers’ professional development). Progress and readiness exams (such as ACT’s Educational Planning and Assessment System) assure students are on track for college-level work.

Districts might also administer Advanced Placement exams to help students earn college credit and practice assessments to ensure students are ready to pass end-of-course tests or high school exit exams. To improve the organizational processes that support teaching and learning, districts may also adopt the use of the Baldrige education criteria or the use of a Balanced Scorecard as an improvement and monitoring strategy. Districts also collect student demographic information that can be used to disaggregate and report data.

States, school districts and schools that gather, analyze and use information about their systems and organizations make better decisions, not only about what to improve, but also about how to institutionalize system improvement. State policymakers use data to foster school improvement strategies, allocate resources, identify and share best practices and hold schools and districts accountable for student learning. Districts use data to monitor student achievement, school success, the effectiveness of programs and allocate resources to ensure individual student needs can be met. Schools use data to assess student progress, the effectiveness of instructional strategies, target professional development target resources. States, districts and schools that use data in a comprehensive manner understand the effectiveness of their continuous improvement efforts; those that do not use data can only assume that effectiveness.