Data Wise ─ A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Assessment Results to Improve Teaching and Learning

Drawing on their research that began with the two-year Data Wise Project at Harvard, Boudett, City, and Murnane (Harvard Graduate School of Education) draw together 10 chapters that show school leaders how to examine test scores and other classroom data to improve teaching and learning. Contributors share tools and strategies to identify explanations for strong and weak student performance, examine the importance of alternative explanations, and plan and execute instructional strategies to improve teaching and learning. They outline a step-by-step process that includes eight activities: organizing for collaborative work, building assessment literacy, creating a data overview, digging into student data, examining instruction, developing an action plan, planning to assess progress, and acting and assessing. They include a chapter on steps school district central offices can take to support schools. This edition has been updated to reflect developments in education and technology and incorporates a way of thinking that prioritizes action, collaboration, and evidence (each chapter applies each to the data improvement process). It has a revised chapter on organizing for collaborative work, which places the job of leading the process in the hands of the instructional leadership team instead of the data team. It aligns the chapter on examining instruction more closely with Key Elements of Observing Practice: A Data Wise DVD and Facilitator's Guide, replaces document templates and protocols that were no longer relevant, and adds a resources section and concluding chapter on where to start, how long it will take, and how people learn to do the work of improvement. Selected protocols include three additional discussion protocols. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)