Informed by previous research from both the teacher efficacy and data-driven educational reform literatures, this study sought to identify whether teachers’ sense of efficacy for their practice was related to their attitudes toward and use of data-based pedagogical techniques. Data use was operationalized in two ways. First, data use referred to teachers’ use of any type of systematically-collected data (e.g. student performance on yearly state tests, demographic information). Data use was also operationalized as teachers’ use of a newly implemented student assessment system that provided teachers with student performance data and resources for working with those data. This study also examined whether associations between teacher efficacy and teachers’ use of data were related to student achievement. Participants were fourth and fifth grade teachers (n= 96) and students (n= 2042) from 46 elementary schools in a large, urban school district. Sources providing data for this study included student-, teacher-, and school-level demographic information, measures of student achievement in reading and math, a survey administered to assess teachers’ efficacy and their data-use related attitudes and behavior, and computer-generated use logs which captured teachers’ use of the student assessment system. Multilevel modeling was used to explore these relationships. The results revealed that teacher efficacy was related to aspects of teachers’ use of data, though these relationships varied depending on the operational definition of data use. Teachers’ efficacy was positively related to teachers’ use of data in general, but negatively related to their use of the new student assessment system. The latter finding may be at least partially attributable to difficulties this district experienced when implementing the assessment system. Additional analyses demonstrated that interactions between teacher efficacy and aspects of their data use were positively related to student achievement in reading when reading achievement was covaried for prior performance. This study concludes that teacher efficacy appears to be related to teachers’ attitudes toward and use of data, though the exact nature of these relationships should be clarified further with additional research, particularly given the implementation obstacles this district faced during the implementation of the data system (Wayman, Cho, & Shaw, 2009b). Further, these factors appear to be associated with positive student achievement outcomes in reading, a finding that should also be explored at greater length. Explorations such as these lend needed insight into the factors that determine whether teachers adopt or reject data-driven educational reforms and whether student achievement outcomes might benefit from teachers’ attention to these types of data. / text

The purpose of this study was to explore the data-driven decision making process within the context of K-12 physical education. Although the topic has received extraordinary attention in other areas of education, it has yet to be investigated directly in physical education settings. A conceptual framework proposed by Mandinach, Honey, Light, and Brunner (2008) guided the investigation. Using a multi-site case study design, one school district previously awarded a Carol M. White Physical Education Program Grant served as the overarching case and eight schools within the district served as embedded cases. Eight physical education teachers, three district coordinators, one principal, and one school counselor participated in the study. Evidence was gathered through interviews, observations, documents, archival records, and artifacts. Analytic strategies such as pattern matching, examining rival explanations, and drawing diagrams were utilized to generate common themes within the data. Overall, findings indicated that physical education teachers collected substantial amounts of physical activity and fitness data aligned with policy requirements, often at the expense of data related to other important teaching domains. Evidence also indicated that teachers rarely transformed collected data into actionable knowledge. It seemed as though teachers were only collecting data because they were required to and held little value in the data once they were collected. Teachers reported that the data collection process was time-consuming and challenges associated with pedometers and information management systems served as barriers to the collection/organization process. In addition, professional development was not utilized to help teachers use data for effective teaching as district coordinators had limited access to teachers on designated professional development days. It is important to note that teachers had substantial concerns surrounding the validity and reliability of the data that were collected. This likely contributed to the low value that was placed upon data. Based upon the findings, ten recommendations for the enhancement of the DDDM process in physical education were generated. One of the most important recommendations is to provide physical education teachers with support in developing data literacy skills so they can take full advantage of the data they collect for the benefit of student learning. / text

This study examined supports that facilitate teacher data use in schools. The purpose of this work was to extend the base of knowledge of general supports for teacher data use, leadership supports for teacher data use, and technology supports for teacher data use. Three research questions guided the study to determine those supports necessary for teachers to be successful in data use: (a) What general data supports exist for teacher data use in schools, (b) what leadership supports exist for teacher data use in schools, and (c) what technology supports exist for teacher data use in schools? A qualitative and quantitative data collection process with a single-case study approach included individual interviews, focus groups, and a survey instrument. The data from these components were coded, analyzed, and organized into themes and implications by implementing the 6-step constant-comparative model. This mixed methods process provided a thorough evaluation of findings to answer the research questions. Two implications were found during the study. First, structures and systems for data use must be intentional in order to support teacher data use in schools. Contributing to the intentionality is time for collaboration; professional development to build teacher capacity; and clearly aligned district vision, mission, and goals. Second, technology support in the classroom is integral to effective data use by teachers. This support manifests in hardware support and personnel support. Hardware includes having the appropriate system that maintains the students, timely access to data and a user-friendly format. Personnel support refers to the integration of technology into teaching and learning, teacher-to-teacher support, and an alleviation of distrust through positive interaction with data. Further analysis revealed implications for practice, including the importance of creating structures and developing a plan for data use. / text

Thesis advisor: Martin Scanlan / This qualitative case study examined leaders’ shared data use, a process of translating data into action (Bernhardt, 2013). Understanding data use is considered conceptually by attending to the assistance relationships shared between central office leaders and principals in the context of turnaround. Such relationships are marked by occasions during which members share expertise by modeling practices; the modeling informs how systems, structures and subsequent practices are introduced and even reinforced for newer members. I focused my analysis on four manifestations of data use: data’s influence on adjusting leadership practice, data’s ability to inform instruction, data use’s benefits from technological advancement, and the intentional promotion of resilience. Data collection included document review as well as interviews with central office leaders and principals. Findings evidenced the nature of both central office leaders’ and principals’ data use as well as revealed a remarkable degree of commonality in the language and practices these leaders shared. The results of this study indicated that assistance relationships are a functioning element of leadership in the turnaround context. This study supported the research that leaders’ shared practice of data use benefits student growth and achievement in line with state-determined assessment and accountability targets. Recommendations include additional research into Lawrence Public Schools’ data use to further inform a blueprint for comprehensive district-wide reform as well as the development of exit criteria from receivership. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

This study was conducted to explorer the relationships between teachers’ perceptions of educational data use, their school’s capacity as a learning organization, and the performance of students at their school. This study employed a quantitative research design featuring a Web-based online survey and collected data from a stratified random sample of 112 middle schools and junior high schools nested in nine school districts in Texas. I used the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (Watkins & Marsick, 1993, 1996) to measure the schools’ capacity as a learning organizations and the Survey of Educator Data Use (Wayman, Cho, & Shaw, 2009b) to measure teachers’ educational data use. I also used the student performance data provided by Texas Education Agency. For the data analysis, I employed the statistical techniques of multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM). I found that educational data use and support did relate to the schools’ organizational learning capacity, and that this dynamic acts as an important factor in enhancing campus performance. This finding gives a clear indication that data use and support has an indirect effect on campus performance, and that this effect is mediated by organizational learning. This research is significant in that it reveals that organizational learning worked as a crucial mediating variable in enhancing student achievement through effective use of data. This finding can give meaningful direction to the pursuit of school improvement through data use in school sites, a practice that began as simple top-down policy implementation. / text

While school districts across the nation are pressed to make better and more frequent use of a range of educational data, they have few resources that help guide the process of improving educator capacity for data use. To date, there have been few efforts to examine the intersection of professional learning and data use to better guide efforts at improving educator data use capacity. In order to learn more about how school districts attempt to meet educator needs in terms of data-related learning, and how they use policies to approach this issue, I examined the intersection of data use and professional learning in three school districts. I used a qualitative case study methodology to examine these issues, and relied on interview data from n=110 individuals across the three districts, as well as document analysis in each district, to better understand the existing structures in each context and how those structures came to be. I also utilized random sampling for some focus groups, and used a peer nomination process for other focus groups, which allowed me to identify educators thought by their colleagues to be “exemplar” data users. I found that across the districts, educators at all levels articulated with remarkable consistency a range of skills and knowledge they said were essential to good data use. Also, educators were consistent in describing the kinds of professional learning structures they thought best supported their needs as learners. However, in most cases, district structures fell short of these ideals. The districts rarely codified expectations related to the structure of professional learning or to data-related skills and knowledge in formal policy, and planning related to data use tended to be fragmented among many departments and leaders. As a result, there were many assumptions that “someone else” or another department was providing support in terms of data-related professional learning, while many times data use-related learning simply fell between the cracks. Informed by existing research and the results of this study, I posited a model aimed at supporting policymakers as they engage in planning for data-related professional learning. / text

Magister Commercii - MCom (IM) (Information Management) / In an ideal public health arena, scientific evidence should be incorporated in the health information practices of making management decisions, developing policies, and implementing programs. However, much effort has been spent in developing health information practices focusing mainly on data collection, data quality and processing, with relatively little development on the utilization side of the information spectrum. Although the South Africa Health National Indicator Dataset of 2013 routinely collects and reports on more than two hundred elements, the degree to which this information is being used is not empirically known. The overall aim of the study was to explore the dynamics of routine primary healthcare information utilization in the West Coast district while identifying specific interventions that could ultimately lead to the improved use of data to better inform decision making. The ultimate goal being to enable managers to better utilize their routine health information for effective decision making.

This study applies an empirical research method determine whether Texas public school principals’ leadership styles, coupled with their use of real time data in a data warehouse, influenced their leadership ability as measured by student achievement. In today’s world of data rich environments that require campuses and districts to make data-driven decisions, principals find themselves having to organize and categorize data to help their school boards, campuses, and citizenry make informed decisions. Most school principals in Texas have access to data in multiple forms including national and state resources and a multitude of other data reports. A random sample of principals was selected to take the Multi Factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ5x) and the Principals Data Use Survey. The MLQ5x measured principals’ leadership styles as transformational, transactional, or passive avoidant. The Principals Data Use Survey measured how principals use data to inform campus decisions on student achievement, shaping the vision of the campus, and designing professional development. Data obtained from the survey were correlated to determine the relationship between principals’ use of data warehouses and their leadership styles on student achievement as measured by the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. The results yielded significant relationships between student achievement, principals’ leadership styles, and the principals’ data use with a data warehouse. Student achievement scores were highly correlated with the campuses that participated in the study and provided limited differences between those with data warehouses and those without data warehouses.

Thesis advisor: Henry I. Braun / Data-based instructional programs, including interim assessments, are a common tool for improving teaching and learning. However, few studies have rigorously examined whether they achieve those ends and contributors to their effectiveness. This study conducts a secondary analysis of data from a matched-pair school-randomized evaluation of the Achievement Network (ANet). Year-two teacher surveys (n=616) and interviews from a subset of ANet school leaders and teachers (n=40) are used to examine the impact of ANet on teachers’ data-based instructional practices and the mediating roles of instructional leadership, professional and achievement cultures, and teacher attitudes and confidence. Survey results showed an impact of ANet on the frequency with which teachers’ reviewed and used data, but not their instructional planning or differentiation. Consistent with the program model, ANet had a modest impact on school-mean teacher ratings of their leaders’ instructional leadership abilities and school culture, but no impact on individual teachers’ attitudes toward assessment or confidence with data-based instructional practices. Therefore, it was not surprising that these school and teacher characteristics only partially accounted for ANet’s impact on teachers’ data practices. Interview findings were consistent. Teachers described numerous opportunities to review students’ ANet assessment results and examples of how they used these data (e.g., to pinpoint skills on which their students struggled). However, there were fewer examples of strategies such as differentiated instruction. Interview findings also suggested some ways leadership, culture, and teacher characteristics influenced ANet teachers’ practices. Leaders’ roles seemed as much about holding teachers accountable for implementation as offering instructional support and, while teachers had opportunities to collaborate, a few schools’ implementation efforts were likely hampered by poor collegial trust. Teacher confidence and attitudes varied, but improved over the two years; the latter following from a perceived connection between ANet practices and better student performance. However, some teachers were concerned with the assessments being too difficult for their students or poorly aligned with the curriculum, resulting in data that were not always instructionally useful. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

This research is focused on the intersection of secondary teachers’ data-use to inform instructional decisions and their teaching of STEM in STEM-focused high schools. Teaching STEM requires presenting more than just the content knowledge of the STEM domains. The methods of inquiry (e.g., scientific inquiry, engineering design) are skills that should be taught as part of STEM activities (e.g., science labs). However, under the data- and standards-based accountability focus of education, it is unclear how data from STEM activities is used in instructional decision-making. While teachers give tremendous weight to the data they collect directly from their observations of their classrooms, it is data from standardized testing that strongly influences practices through accountability mandates. STEM education alters this scenario because, while there is a growing focus on teaching STEM, important aspects of STEM education are not readily standardized. This mixed-methods study will examine the perspectives of 9th through 12th grade science and mathematics teachers, in STEM-focused schools, on data-use and STEM teaching. We developed a framework, adapted from existing frameworks of data-use, to categorize these perspectives and outline contexts influencing them. Through a concurrent triangulation design we will combine quantitative and qualitative data for a comprehensive synthesis of these perspectives.