Overview: Conditions That Support Data-Informed Decisionmaking

The long-term success of school leaders requires supportive conditions at all levels of the education system. In Leadership for Learning, The Wallace Foundation suggests three core elements of policy that largely determine the quality of school leadership and the environment in which they will either succeed or fail: (1) leader standards, (2) leader training and (3) system conditions. Conditions and incentives that heavily affect the long-term success or failure of leaders include: the presence or absence of necessary data to inform decisions; the authority and decision-making leaders either have, or lack; the ability to direct needed resources (people, time and money) to meet all students’ needs; and whether or not state and local policies affecting the recruitment, hiring, placement and evaluation of school leaders and teachers supports schools. Conditions that support data informed decisionmaking are described here.

At the state level, supportive conditions for data informed decisionmaking include providing and receiving timely data from state assessments and accountability systems; access to longitudinal data systems that help link information for decisionmaking; training in data use and data literacy, school improvement planning processes that use data; predictive assessments such as those predicting college or work readiness; and, access to tools like the balanced scorecard that can provide leaders with a wider range of data. States may also make common or benchmark assessments available to districts to monitor student achievement on a more frequent basis. States collect and report a wide array of data beyond student achievement including budgets, how resources are allocated, and staff qualifications and other data required by federal programs.

1. Essential Elements

The University of Washington report, Data-Informed Leadership, identifies several conditions that have an influence on how leaders can work with data:

• Focus on Learning Using Data – a persistent, public focus on learning improvement offers an especially important reference point for the leaders’ use of data, with emphasis on data concerning efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
• Core Values and Theories of Action – five values are identified that focus on learning improvement, ambitious standards for student learning, belief in human capacity, commitment to equity, belief in professional support and responsibility, and commitment to inquiry.
• Leader’s Data Literacy – how well the leader can understand the data reflects on their abilities to work with it.
• Available Data and Data Sources – includes student demographics, perceptions, student learning, school processes, teacher characteristics, behavior, and personal learning.
• Culture and Cycles of Inquiry – building a culture in your district that supports inquiry is important because it can reduce the risk of top-level leaders asking and answering questions about practice and performance; the leadership and support for inquiry must be distributed among the stakeholders of the organization.
• Data Training and Infrastructure - a policy environment that includes investments in the development of leaders’ data literacy and investments in the development of data infrastructures, such as longitudinal data systems and data warehouses.

Supportive State-Level Conditions
To support school leaders in using data, the following state-level conditions should be in place:

• Goals and standards that can be assessed.
• A balanced state and district level accountability system. (The state typically uses annual assessment results for accountability purposes and districts use common or benchmark assessments on a regular basis to monitor student progress.)
• A school improvement planning process that uses data.
• A data tracking system such as a longitudinal data system that meets the Data Quality Campaign’s ten essential elements and a user friendly data warehouse.
• Training in data use, including using data in cycles of inquiry.
• Data transparency including public reporting of results and the engagement of stakeholders.

2. Promising Practices

Several states have a long history of providing and using data for school improvement.  Washington State, for over a decade, has had a strong assessment system and school improvement process. Using state assessment results, an independent center, the Center for Educational Effectiveness creates a number of different reports for schools and districts to help them close the achievement gap and meet AYP. The school improvement planning process is research-based and includes nine characteristics of high performing schools.  It includes several tools to help schools create improvement plans using data. The state also provides assistance to school districts in need of support. A summary of the Washington efforts appears in the tools section, called Washington Data Use.

Another state, Kentucky, has a comprehensive accountability, data use and school improvement system. The state assessment includes a growth model as well as student reporting by standards and school reporting by AYP. Items are released from annual assessments as guides for the types of items on the state exam. District and building assessment coordinators are trained in assessment administration and data use. Kentucky has a set of standards and indicators for school improvement. The school improvement process is supported by training, guides for roles and responsibilities for improvement planning and assessing the impact of school improvement. The state has also developed a set of Scholastic Audits (rubrics) for districts and schools linked to the school improvement standards. A summary of Kentucky’s efforts appears in the tools section, called Kentucky Data Use.

3. Critical Questions

• Are your state board goals for education clear and measurable?
• Does you state have a comprehensive and balanced data system?
• Does your state support the use of accountability data in districts and schools?
• Does your state have a longitudinal data system that provides timely data to school and district leaders?
• Does your state provide training in data use – for educators and other stakeholders?
• Is data-informed decisionmaking an explicit standard for leader licensure?
• Is data-informed decisionmaking a required course for leader preparation?
• Is there a state leadership academy that trains teachers and principals in data use?
• Does your state have a school improvement process that requires the use of data?
• Does your state provide support for school improvement planning?
• Does your state target the improvement of leaders’ use of data through leader standards and their development?

4. State Resources