Abstract

Using data for informed decision making is important for determining how systems should allocate resources and strengthen programs to improve teaching and learning. Schools and organizations are increasingly responsible for documenting and reporting progress and the available data are growing. New federal legislation is encouraging states to enact policies for making all school data publicly available and to use these data to hold districts accountable for all students to learn. Within this current climate of data for informed decision making, there are issues surrounding how current assessment of student achievement is linked with all other data available within schools. In many education environments, there are few questions about data availability. Rather, the issue is with how to understand and use these data to improve student learning and to support the educators to enhance student performance within the curriculum.