Practices That Support Data Use in Urban High Schools

This article presents initial findings of a case study focusing on data use in five low-performing urban high schools undergoing comprehensive schoolwide reform. The case study investigates: (a) the ways in which disaggregated data can be used to examine progress and guide improvement in the process of restructuring urban, low-performing high schools; (b) factors and conditions that either promote or act as barriers to data use; and (c) the policy and practice implications of achieving effective data use in a high school reform process. Study findings point to several key factors that have an impact on data use in the study sites: the quality and accuracy of avail-able data, staff access to timely data, the capacity for data disaggregation, the collab-orative use of data organized around a clear set of questions, and leadership struc-tures that support schoolwide use of data. The findings build on current literature and also contribute new knowledge of the key roles played by a data team and a data coach in fostering effective data use in high school reform. The high school reform movement is drawing increasing attention to the need for more systematic uses of data to inform the policy, management, and instructional changes that result in higher student achievement. As today’s educators grapple with the challenge of changing current high school structures into more effective learning environments, data can be a powerful ally in stimulating positive change and improvement. In low-performing urban high schools, increasing demands for accountability are paralleled by equity concerns arising from the enormous di-versity of the student population—in culture, language, prior educational ex-periences, home situations, learning styles, attitudes toward learning, and future aspirations.