School improvement is the ultimate goal of school reform laws and the rules, policies, and procedures for implementing them. Federal and many state laws require schools to have school improvement plans and to set goals to improve student achievement of standards. Goals for improvement are based on state and local assessment results and the indicator systems of which they are a part. These results reveal overall learning, conditions that affect learning, and discrepancies in learning between content areas, groups of students, and grade levels. Using this information, the school determines what needs to be improved, who needs to improve, and how that improvement might be accomplished.
CCSSO and AEL have collaborated to develop the Data-Based Decision Making web tool. This tool provides guidance through the steps of data-based decision-making processes and access to useful examples, real school stories, and the best available tools and resources to help schools build effective data-based decision making systems. Ultimately, we hope this tool will provide the kind of ongoing job-embedded assistance necessary to institutionalize data-based school improvement.
Roles of CCSSO and AEL
This web tool was created and is maintained through a collaboration between CCSSO State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards and AEL.
AEL is a nonprofit education research, development, and services institution. It operates at the intersection of research, practice, and policy to spark innovation in education and promote strategies to increase student achievement. AEL holds a national leadership designation in educational technology from the U.S. Department of Education.
CCSSO provides collaboration among and support to chief state school officers and their staffs. Among the projects of CCSSO are state collaboratives that focus on specific issues. The Comprehensive Assessment Systems for ESEA Title I State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards (CAS SCASS) addresses issues related to the implementation of Title I requirements for standards, assessments, and adequate yearly progress. Among these issues is the use of assessment results and other data to guide improvement.
The Data-Based Decision Making framework is divided into the following six areas.
Visit the DBDM website to learn more.
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