Leading Schools in a Data-Rich World

Book excerpt: Turn skepticism about data into knowledge for true educational reform! More versatile than mere number crunching and statistics, data can be an effective tool—or even a powerful catalyst—for change within a school. By replacing cynicism with conviction, learning to harness data′s power, and becoming good users of data to positively impact student achievement, school leaders can develop three crucial capacities: an inquiry habit of mind, data literacy, and a culture of inquiry. Lorna M. Earl and Steven Katz show educators how to become comfortable with data, and provide valuable tools for school improvement teams to use in their work, including: Vignettes to support group discussion Activities for practicing the ideas and concepts in the book Task sheets Short case studies with actual school data that show how the full process works in a school To improve schools, data can and should be a vital force in the change process. Using this essential resource, school leaders, school teams, study groups, and students of education can all make sense of data to plan and reform for maximum benefit.