Using Data To Boost Student Achievement

Features

Data-Driven Decision Making: What It Takes To Make Decisions
Philip A. Streifer
Reviewing student report cards and absentee records is not enough to improve instruction in our classrooms. Researcher Philip Streifer outlines the stages of data- driven decision making and provides the motivation for digging deeper into data.

Using Data To Improve Classroom Instruction
Rochelle Abraitis
Learn how teachers and administrators in Manchester (Connecticut) Public Schools are generating and analyzing data to make it useful at the classroom level. Rochelle Abraitis takes us through the steps.

Key Questions for Data-Driven Decision Making
Lynda Cox
You can't get the results you want if you don't ask the right questions, according to Connecticut middle school principal Lynda Cox. She describes how teachers in her district are using data to improve student achievement in core subject areas.

Mining Data: The Prospects Are Golden
Jan Raundonis and Ann Remus
How do educators make decisions that positively affect curricula and instruction? At McKelvie Middle School in Bedford, New Hampshire, they are tapping into the newest technology to break big chunks of data into useable nuggets of information.

Digging Deep: Bringing Student Activity Participation to the Top
Lyn Fiscus
Student participation in cocurricular activities has been linked to increased academic achievement and decreased dropout rates. Educators can increase student participation in activities by learning more about them and then reaching out.

Helping Struggling Students Succeed
Edward W. Holler
The teachers at Yorktown Middle School in Virginia decided to pool their knowledge and resources and devise a consistent, schoolwide plan for identifying and helping struggling students succeed. Principal Ed Holler describes the school's successful academic intervention plan.

Deprtments

The Electronic Thread
Brenda A. Dyck
Publishing student work online encourages reluctant writers, supports student self-confidence, and expands students' horizons. Brenda Dyck offers resources for "morphing the classroom bulletin board."

One Teacher to Another
Rick Wormeli
Gifted adolescents need as much caring and attention as those who struggle. Rick Wormeli takes us into the world of the gifted middle school student and provides some strategies for providing guidance and support.

The Mark of Leadership
David W. Peterson
Faced with increasing accountability and assessment demands, principals must not forget that perceptions can be just as valuable as hard data when planning school improvement programs. Minnesota Principal David Peterson describes how surveys can get to the heart of school issues.

Spotlight on Advisory
Teresa Convery and Janet Tremble
Advisory programs come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have one goal: to provide students with a link to themselves, their world, and at least one adult in the school who knows them well. Two award-winning advisory programs are spotlighted this month.