DID Resource Kit for States, Districts and Schools

District Tools


Michigan Coalition of Educational Leadership (2007)

New Mexico Office of Accountability (2007)
Using and Modifying the 2007 New Mexico Student Assessment Data Analysis Tool.

Smart Data Users: Helping Principals Use Data Effectively Survey
In 2007, with support from The Wallace Foundation, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, New Mexico, and Ohio developed and administered surveys to over 1,000 principals to determine how principals use data to make informed decisions about improving student achievement.  The surveys includes four different modules or components:

  1. Data for Principals
  2. Importance of Data
  3. Principal Data Challenges
  4. Principal Preparation

Southern Regional Education Board
Training Modules in Data Use
Using Data to Focus Improvement:Schools that successfully improve student achievement regularly use data to guide decisions about instruction, student support and professional development. Easy-to-use processes are taught, and participants learn how data are a vital part of the school improvement process.

Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI)
Training Modules in Data Use
GLISI has a number of training modules that are designed to help school and district leaders use and analyze data.

Ohio Department of Education
Ohio Data Driven Decisionmaking for Academic Achievement (D3A2)

Kentucky Department of Education
Kentucky Standards and Indicators for School Improvement Toolkit
The SISI toolkit provides resources and tools intentionally linked to the Standards and Indicators for School Improvement and focuses on high expectations for teaching and learning. The toolkit provides easy access to information including documents, books, videos, and websites.

IBM Reinventing Education
IBM Reinventing Education Toolkit
The Reinventing Education grant program forms the centerpiece of IBM's global commitment to education. Through Reinventing Education, IBM is working with school partners throughout the world to develop and implement innovative technology solutions designed to solve some of education's toughest problems. Reinventing Education also includes an interactive Web-based Change Toolkit based on the work of Harvard Business School Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter. The toolkit, which is accessible to all educators, is designed to help school leaders expand and sustain their education reform efforts.

Celio, M. B. & Harvey, J. (2005). Buried Treasure: Developing a Management Guide from Mountains of School Data Seattle, WA: University of Washington.Summary: This report provides useful information on developing a school district management guide as well as an actual guide focused on seven evidence-based indicators: achievement, elimination of the achievement gap, student attraction to the school, student engagement with the school, student retention and completion, teacher attraction and retention, and funding equity. The report also includes several implications from the analyses of the role of indicators in the management system described. The authors conclude that indicator development encourages educators to think of new ways to assess accountability and to move beyond bottom-line assessment systems.

The Data on Enacted Curriculum. Summary: The DEC project is a professional development model to help schools and districts connect the data they have with the results they want to produce. DEC is a process and materials designed to build the capacity of educators to realize the potential of their data in solving problems in closing the achievement gap and raising the achievement of all students in math and science.

Data Use for Quality School Improvement Inventory. Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center. Summary: The Inventory is a tool to help evaluate the extent to which the core capacities for data use are in place, including leadership, quality assurance, infrastructure, communication and action for learning.

Knapp, M. S., Copland, M. A., & Talbert, J. E. (2003). Leading for learning: Reflective tools for school and district leaders. University of Washington: Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy. Summary: This article provides a framework of reflective ideas and tools to support education leaders’ efforts to improve student learning. The framework highlights five areas of action for improvement and various pathways for enhancing student and professional learning. The ideas and tools concentrate on work related to instructional leadership, school reform and renewal, teacher learning and professional community, teacher leadership, organizational learning, policy-practice connections, and education in high-poverty, high-diversity settings.

Tufte, E.R. (2001). The visual display of quantitative information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press. Summary:  This classic book on statistical graphics, charts, tables, provides a background of theory and practice of the design of data graphics, and examples of how to display data for precise, effective, quick analysis.


Tools for Creating Information Systems/Data Warehouses

Jackl, A., & King, S. (2006). Optimal reference guide: What's really "in store" for your data warehouse? Part I. Austin, TX: ESP Solutions Group. Summary: The paper introduces data warehousing by defining what it is and what it is not, and may help administrators answer whether or not a data warehouse is a necessary component of their overall education information system.

Jackl, A., & King, S. (2006). Optimal reference guide: What's behind your data warehouse? Part II. Austin, TX: ESP Solutions Group.  Summary: The second brief in this series on data warehousing details the design, structure, and configuration parameters of a data warehouse.
http://www.espsolutionsgroup.com/resources.php

Jain, H., Nazareth, D., & Nelson, R. (2000). Data warehouses in public schools: Lessons learned in an on-going implementation. Americas Conference on Information Systems. Summary: This paper describes the process of creating and implementing a data warehouse in the Milwaukee Public Schools.

Learning Point Associates & Educational Service Agency Alliance of the Midwest. (2006). Effective use of electronic data systems: A readiness guide for district and school leaders. Naperville, IL: Learning Point Associates and Educational Service Agency Alliance of the Midwest. Summary: This guide is aimed at school and district leaders considering acquiring an electronic data system to improve the use of data for change in their organizations.

Learning Points Associates. (2006). Information systems for school improvement: Resources. Summary: A website focused on school-level data analysis systems and resources to support data-driven decisionmaking.

Levine, E. (2002). Building a data warehouse: How you collect, manage, and report data may be the difference between success and failure. American School Board Journal. Summary:  This article explains the basics of data warehousing and steps educators and administrators can take to enhance data collection and reporting, as a means to greatly improve their chances of making data-driven decision-making a reality.