The National Center for Education Statistics, in conjunction with the Institute of Education Sciences and the U.S. Department of Education, has recently released the Forum Guide to Taking Action with Education Data. The goal of the new Forum Guide is to give educators practical ideas about how they can process data and implement concrete changes based on what they learn.
The movement to make efficient use of data has grown in recent years, with other organizations such as the Center for Education Policy Research setting out to be a “unique partnership among districts, states, foundations, and university-based researchers designed to leverage the overwhelming amount of newly available school-, teacher-, and student-level data to address previously intractable policy questions in education and improve educational outcomes for all students.”
The National Center for Education Statistics provides the following description for the Forum Guide:
The Forum Guide to Taking Action with Education Data provides stakeholders with practical information about the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to more effectively access, interpret, and use education data to inform action. The Briefs that accompany the Introduction are written for three key education audiences: Educators, School and District Leaders, and State Program Staff. The document includes an overview of the evolving nature of data use, basic data use concepts, and a list of skills necessary for effectively using data. The Guide recommends a question-driven approach to data use, in which the following questions can help guide readers who need to use data to take action:
- What do I want to know?
- What data might be relevant?
- How will I access relevant data?
- What skills and tools do I need to analyze the data?
- What do the data tell me?
- What are my conclusions?
- What will I do?
- What effects did my actions have?
- What are my next steps?
The introduction to the document itself adds, regarding the need for the Forum Guide:
In an era of diminishing public resources, the effective use of data is about being efficient: once an education organization has gone to the effort of collecting data, failing to use the information to inform instructional, administrative, and policy-related activities is uneconomical, unwise, and a waste of a valuable information resource. Conversely, appropriate action, based on the right data at the right time, can lead education organizations to greater efficiency, educators to greater effectiveness, and students to greater academic achievement.
The Appendix to the guide also provides links to helpful online resources and articles.
To access the guide, please visit the following website:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2013801
