1. Effect size = .40 (Leithwood, 2011)
Deliberate and Consistent Use of Multiple Sources of Evidence To Inform Decisions
Effect size = .40
(Leithwood, 2011)

2. From “Strong Districts” and the “District Effectiveness Framework”…
Have efficient and effective information management systems
Provide schools with relevant evidence about their performance
Assist schools in using evidence to improve their performance

3. High Performing School Systems………
Create collaborative structures and opportunities for the interpretation of evidence in schools;
Call on expertise from outside the school system for help with data interpretation when needed;

4. High Performing School Systems………
Use appropriate evidence for accounting to stakeholders
Make effective use of existing research to guide policy making and planning.
Going deeper……

5. Data Use Framework (Anderson, Leithwood & Strauss, 2010)
Types of 1. 1Types of
Evidence
-Nature
-Breadth
Processes for interpreting evidence for
Interpreting Evidence
Decisions a& Actions Actions
Student learning Learning
Conditions Factors Influencing Uses of of Evidence
Data Use Framework
(Anderson, Leithwood & Strauss, 2010)

6. Nature of Evidence No “evidence-free” decisions in schools—ever!! but
clinical, informal, impressionistic, unobtrusive
vs.
systematic, codified, formal, objective, obtrusive
Policy context favors the latter, but there are tradeoffs and the contributions of the latter are not well documented
Are you sensitive to the tradeoffs being made in your district?

7. (Finnegan et al, 2012)
64.10 %
52.00
51.50 4
0.40 3
9.90
8.90
35. 90
32.3
31.3
28.30
27.80
19.20
16.70
50.00
100.00
0.00
Student performance data
Research/evaluations conducted in my school/district
District administrators
Professional associations
Education books
Local experts
Higher education faculty
Staff at another school
Non academic student outcome data
Research/evaluations published in scholarly journals
Think tank or federal/state department of education
reports
Research/evaluations published in practitioner
journals
Popular press
Web-
based clearinghouses or listserves
Educational blogs
Figure 1.
Most frequently consulted
evidence types/sources
before school makes
improvement decision

8. How broad is the evidence typically used in your district?
Breadth of Evidence
Typically, a high proportion is limited to the status of current student achievement which is crucial but narrow
--in addition--
Status of conditions or variables that mediate the teacher’s and administrator’s influence on student learning and well being
Formal research evidence about effective practice
How broad is the evidence typically used in your district?

9. Conditions Influencing Uses of Evidence
Accessibility and timeliness
Perceived validity
Capacity and support for interpreting data
--as well as--
Time available to interpret and act on data
Procedures and tools for collecting data
What is the status of these conditions in your schools?
(Ikemoto & Marsh, 2007)

10. And District Efforts… Providing data in easily accessible forms
Creating opportunities for networking and sharing between schools about data, its’ interpretation and how it might be used
Modeling effective data use
(Daly, 2012)

11. District Efforts (cont.)…
Providing incentives for data use
Establishing norms of data use and continuous improvement (“an evaluation habit of mind”)
What is your district doing about these things?
(Datnow et al, 2008; Honig & Venkateswaran, 2012; Earl & Katz, 2002)

12. Processes for Interpreting Evidence
Effectiveness depends on:
Number of data sources
Nature and extent of analysis
--and--
Who is involved in interpretation & use
--as well as--
Number of data points
Range of contexts for data use

13. How does data get used in your district?
Decisions and Actions
Justifying existing practices
Challenging existing practices
Providing insights about how to do things differently
--and--
Symbolic, conceptual and instrumental uses
Superficial vs. deeper, more nuanced uses
How does data get used in your district?
(Finnegan et al, 2012)
Insights about how to do things differently