Helping K-12 leaders use data more effectively and confidently

Key points:

• Confidence in K-12 data use is rooted in a comfortable understanding
• Data-informed decision-making in education: A comprehensive approach
• Creating smart campuses to transform student life
• For more on data use in K-12, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership hub

Autumn is a universally familiar season. Whether you live among the redwoods of the Pacific Northwest, or in the sunny southern states, the cooler air, shorter days, and yellow school buses are all a part of our collective fall. Students are now fully back into the swing of things, and teachers and school leaders have found their rhythm for the year.

With that rhythm comes certain familiar fall routines as well, such as administering the first interim assessment, as well as collecting additional baseline formative and summative assessment data to start the year off as informed as possible. Fall is a perfect time to examine data skills and confidence. 

Data is an essential aspect of a school’s culture. At the leadership level, data can be used to identify trends, validate conjectures, monitor progress, and check the efficacy of programs and initiatives.  At the classroom level, a variety of data should be used by teachers to plan for the upcoming unit, as well as weekly and daily instruction. Similar to leaders, teachers should use it to reflect on differentiation best practices as well as to validate support and certify learning.  Students–the most important stakeholders–should be made aware of how data is being used to enhance their learning experience, and collaborate with teachers to develop data based goals that are age and instructionally appropriate. 

While you might be nodding your head in agreement, for some school leaders, the above is easier read than done. The same way algebra can suddenly present a unique challenge for even the most savvy math student, data can be the obstacle that even the most skilled leader finds themself struggling with.  For many it can feel like “too much,” and the forest almost always gets lost for the trees. 

Reframe approaches to get over data hurdles

So how do school leader get over data hurdles and reframe their disposition to data? First, do your research when selecting an interim assessment.  Be sure you choose the assessment that aligns with your professional ethos, the goals in your comprehensive education plan, as well as your school’s data culture. Selecting the right assessment is a lot like choosing an exercise that suits your lifestyle and fitness goals. For some, yoga, with its mindful meditation and fluid movement, is a perfect fit.  For others, intense circuit training that pushes you to your limit is just what the doctor ordered.

Start with expanding your understanding of the assessments that are being used 

Next, learn as much as you can about the assessments you are administering. Many school leaders feel they need to have all the answers, or at least appear to, when it comes to data.  However, with the time constraints of the role, that can feel like a daunting task that eventually never becomes realized. So commit to learning as much as you can about your school-wide, grade level, and department-wide assessments. While becoming the data expert of your building might be a good goal, start small. Whichever interim assessment you use, become familiar enough with its key terms and metrics and how they can be used to inform instruction and track growth.  Be versed in your grade level and department-wide assessments enough to know, generally speaking, the standards being assessed and the ways teachers will use the data in the classroom. This also creates the conditions for more meaningful and fruitful data conversations both with your leadership team and vertically with teacher teams and departments. It is easier to move forward as a school when we’re all speaking the same data language.

Empower your team members to share their data expertise

Don’t be afraid to empower your teacher leaders who seem to have a knack for data.  Surrounding yourself with a strong data team strengthens the school’s data culture and models for students an evergreen best practice: data collaboration. While you’re developing your data acumen, learn from those who speak its language fluently. A diverse data team can help to uncover blindspots and instructional gaps, as well as provide a variety of perspectives on ways to get the most out of your data.  

Confidence in data comes from a comfortable understanding, if not fluency, of data, being able to speak to the potential it has in informing instruction, and leading conversations where data implementation is the key ingredient. With a narrow focus and some commitment, what might feel like a mountain now can most certainly become a data molehill before the last autumn leaf falls.  

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