Data-Based Decision Making From a Researcher Perspective

This presentation focuses on the effects of the data team procedure in schools. School improvement in terms of improved student achievement is the ultimate goal of the data team procedure. To accomplish improved student achievement, teachers need to have applied the knowledge and skills as learned in the data team procedure. In addition, teachers need to have actually improved their knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs because of the data team procedure. A prerequisite for learning is that teachers respond positively in terms of their satisfaction about the professional development program. Consequently, we can distinguish four levels of effects for the data team procedure (Guskey, 2000). The results of our quantitative and qualitative analyses show that data team participants are, for example, satisfied about the support and the materials related to the data team procedure. In terms of their use of knowledge and skills, participants significantly improved in collaboration around data use. Finally, several teams found the causes for their problem and implemented measures to improve student achievement. This presentation will further discuss how the use of data in teams can impact teacher professionalization and school improvement.