Teacher Use of Data to Guide Instructional Practice in Elementary Schools
Open Access
- Author:
- Burrows, Debra Casale
- Graduate Program:
- Educational Leadership
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- October 18, 2010
- Committee Members:
- Nona Ann Prestine, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Nona Ann Prestine, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
William Hartman, Committee Member
Edgar Paul Yoder, Committee Member
Preston C Green, Committee Member - Keywords:
- data driven decision making
data use
NCLB - Abstract:
- This descriptive study focused on the degree to which data-driven decision making as envisioned by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation was actually occurring in the elementary schools studied. A multi-stage random sample of six Pennsylvania school districts out of 19 located within the service area of Pennsylvania Intermediate Unit #17, one of 29 regional educational service agencies in Pennsylvania, was utilized. A cross sectional survey was developed and administered to 262 teachers in 15 elementary schools. Usable responses were received from a total of 103 (39.3%). A picture emerged of both progress toward NCLB expectations as well as the existence of substantial obstacles which threatened to prevent the attainment of those expectations. Although the teachers studied had access to multiple types of data, they tended to rely on only one. Teachers lacked critical supports such as training, time and procedural guidelines. They made good-faith attempts to engage in data driven decision making but relied almost exclusively on their own conceptions/definitions of what counted as data driven decision making and this called into question the very efficacy of those decisions. The overall conclusion of this study was that teachers in the schools studied, despite their efforts to do so, were unable to engage in data driven decision making as envisioned by NCLB.