By the numbers
From the moment a student enrolls, the accumulation of data in schools begins.
Despite swimming in student information — from classroom and standardized test scores to grades, attendance and demographic information — schools find that mining that data to better understand academic achievement isn’t easy. It takes time and skill to analyze the relationships between data sets aggregated over months and years in order to use the findings to inform planning and reform.
So why do it?
“It’s like not knowing your cholesterol level,” says Brian Doore, who specializes in educational data analysis as a research associate at the University of Maine’s Center for Research and Evaluation. “You think you’re fine, but you don’t know for sure until you find out more information. (Data analysis) provides an opportunity to verify that schools are doing the right thing or to better understand specific areas of need they may not have been aware of.”
Under constant pressure to be accountable and improve student achievement, especially when failing to meet the No Child Left Behind Act proficiency standards, schools nationwide are increasingly turning to data-driven decisionmaking. Schools committed to the effort often form data teams that include analysis experts such as those in the Center for Research and Evaluation in UMaine’s College of Education and Human Development.
“We are not curriculum specialists; we help teachers (and administrators) interpret their data to look at curricula and teaching, and answer questions about how and when subjects are taught, and whether students could achieve more if changes were made,” says Walt Harris, who directs the UMaine center. “Educators are overwhelmed with data that could be very valuable. It takes sitting down and digesting the relationships among test scores (and other data) that can tell you about how, when and what you’re teaching.”
Student data analysis in a school can inform changes in such areas as curricula scope and sequence, improvement and progress plans, professional development and resource allocations. The data also can reinforce a school’s areas of success.
“It’s important for schools to break their data down so they can see where students need help and what tools they should use to help students,” says Deb Allen, a research associate and policy specialist in the center. “This (school-specific approach) is more useful than saying students are not performing to a state average. It provides teachers with valuable information that can translate into student success.”
For the past three years, educational data analysis has been one of many initiatives at UMaine’s center, which was established in 1987 to provide schools, communities and organizations with qualitative and quantitative research, program evaluation, custom-designed studies and assistance with grant proposals. Maine schools contract with the center to assist their staffs in data-based decisionmaking.
“The use of student data systems to improve education and help students succeed is a national priority,” according to the U.S. Department of Education, which has a website, Doing What Works, featuring practical suggestions for using data. “Data systems are expected to play an increasingly important role in improving educational decision making at all levels — state, district, school, and classroom.”
In January, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded more than $22 million in grants to support research and data systems to identify effective practices and support student performance. The grants to schools, districts and states will be used to gather and use data to impact teaching and learning.
In Maine, the state education department offers a Data Quality Certification Program “to support school staff in building a culture of data quality” in an overall effort to improve student achievement.
“It’s more than just looking at MEA scores at the end of the year,” says Doore of the new emphasis on data analysis. “It’s all about students’ progress in schools and more equitable access to a quality education.”
It was a state Department of Education consultant who referred officials at Sacopee Valley High School in Hiram to the UMaine Center for Research and Evaluation when the school was identified as a Continuous Improvement Priority School under No Child Left Behind, according to SAD 55 Superintendent Sylvia Pease. Doore began working with the staff and administrators two years ago.
“We had the data but had not used it well,” says Pease. “Brian (Doore) came down that summer and worked with the staff and administration, helping them learn how to use the data and recognize its value. Ryan Caron, the vice principal, took what he learned and continued to work with the high school staff throughout the year to look at the data and make decisions based on it. For the first time, we used data to drive instruction and set realistic goals.”
The school looked at correlations between such areas as standardized test scores and classroom grades. It analyzed its strengths and weaknesses in literacy, including reading comprehension. The data analysis sparked conversations about how much value to place on homework.
This year, the high school met its state-mandated Adequate Yearly Progress and came off the CIPS list. District-wide, data-driven decisionmaking is now a priority — Doore now works with the Sacopee Valley Middle School staff and Caron gives instructional PowerPoint presentations to the elementary schools and school board.
“It’s been a great two years,” Pease says. “Teachers recognize that by aggregating and analyzing that data, they can identify (academic) areas that need additional attention. Goals for the district and activity plans for the year can be built around it. If there are areas in math or reading that need more focus, we can set up professional development.”
Sumner Memorial High School in Sullivan also has tapped UMaine’s Center for Research and Evaluation — a resource principal Michael Eastman describes as a “rare luxury” in public education. For the past three years, Allen has provided analysis for Sumner’s data team, made up of Eastman, two teachers, and the school’s literary specialist and curriculum coordinator.
“In education, it’s extremely important to look at this data, but finding the time to do that is a struggle,” Eastman says. “With Deb’s input, we’ve been able to make decisions that were a huge step for our school. It’s also nice to see the progress in our data.”
Sumner, also on the CIPS list, has focused on test scores, including PSATs and SATs, and demographics such as socioeconomic status and gender, and students with disabilities. In addition, it has compared its grading practices with student achievement, which Eastman says has led to “deep conversations” among teachers and administrators.
“The data has helped us target specific (groups of) students to help them meet the standard with better tools, remediation or prevention measures so, in the long run, they’re successful,” Eastman says.
“This will be a telling (fourth) year for us,” Eastman says. The longitudinal data will allow Sumner to “make valid comparisons in regard to instructional programs.”
Seeing educators gain that understanding of the data they have and the potential for future data is most exciting, Harris says.
“It’s information they’ve always had and now can make better use of,” says Harris. “We leave them with the skills and a new enthusiasm for test data and all that it may tell them.”
