Understanding Student Data: A study of English Language Learners at Las Lomitas Elementary School
For a quarter-long project in School-Based Decision Making, Winter 2007, my group analyzed English language learner reading data from Las Lomitas in an effort to provide the elementary school administrators with some suggestions for their continued use of data to inform decision making. This exploration highlighted for me some of the difficulties schools face in collecting and using data meaningfully:
- Transient populations make collecting and analyzing longitudinal data difficult.
- Variability of mandated test cut-scores makes it difficult to compare performance from year to year.
- Lack of time and easy-to-access records of students' test performance discourages analyzing how the data could inform practice.
- Fulfilling state-required data collection requests can distract school leaders from thinking of other types of data that might be more useful.
View the final report (.pdf).