Data-Based Decision-Making

Data driven decision-making is leading to school success for many apparent reasons. Data driven decision-making is the direct correlation between teachers, curriculum coaches, principals, district educational supervisors, superintendent, and board members. According to Boudett and Moody (2005), the first important step in a successful data driven environment is the gathering of the group that will bare the responsibility for the procedural and executional procedural stages of data analysis.

Regulations in place to ensure compliance is records locked and secures in a records room which only administration and secretarial staff have access, no work that has a student name and/or grade may be displayed or put where any other person besides the teacher could see, no release of any personal information over the phone, and many other policies set n place to protect the district, teachers and students. Although district policies are in place, there are some loopholes, which unfortunately result in litigation for non-compliance or different interpretation of the law.

The district leaders rely heavily on data basis that gather sort and produce usable data to help in the decision making process. Like the individuals in the cases study, leader can become comfortable with the data without checking the validity and the reliability of the data. If the data is coming from MSIS database, which in managed, by Mississippi Department of Education, it is often taken for granted that the information is valid. However, data can be received from testing companies, educational assistance companies and district personnel. Therefore as the educational leaders make decisions they have to consistently check the source of the data. The leadership team should make sure that all data that is being used is valid and reliable. They should also ensure that each department knows what the other departments are doing and their efforts are aligned vertically and

By implementing this idea in Area Two schools to support special education students, we will create a more data driven approach to increasing student achievement. By following this idea the team will also do a better job of implementing professional development and mentorships that greatly increase teacher effectiveness. The idea will also increase understanding of the diversity of the schools and promote community involvement by establishing more open communication with the parents and the community to support their students’ needs. The leadership teams will work together to set goals and objectives to support achievement in all grade levels. They will develop a framework for good communication between teachers and leaders so there is

By examining various data elements, professional school counselors can understand what influences access and attainment. Attainment data helps counselors figure out if a student needs to advance to the next grade and graduate.

Some of these additional resources include the time required to increase support and the skills to intervene and monitor progress (Bohanon, Goodman, & Mcintosh, 2010). The purpose of data collection in Tier 3 is “to build an intervention that will accelerate learning, monitor intervention progress, address and adjust integrity and implementation facets to maximal effects, and to evaluate the intervention effects” (VanDerHeyden & Burns, 2010, p. 12). Although Tier 3 may or may not include a referral to special education, a referral for these services is recommended for students who do not make progress, if there is any question of a

According to the National Center on RTI website, the first step a district needs to take to begin RTI is to access the needs of the district and gather information on RTI. If RTI meets the needs of the district, then an action plan should be developed. The district should form a leadership team that consists of an administrator, general education teacher, special education teacher, and school psychologist. Next, a universal screener should be adopted. This screener, for example, DIBELS, should be administered three times a year. Also, professional development should be planned to assist with the understanding of how RTI works and how the data will drive instruction.

Response to Intervention (RtI) is a framework based off the problem solving method that integrates assessment, and targeted instruction, within a multi-tiered intervention system. Implementation of RtI in schools is crucial to identify which students need additional intervention that will help increase their literacy skills, and prevent them from falling behind. RtI is based off multi-leveled tiers that are each categorized by the intensity of the intervention that is being used. The RtI framework is also used as a valued tool in monitoring and improving student behavior in the classroom through a model known as Positive Behavioral Intervention Support (PBIS).

Not including alphabetic characters in a Social Security Number field is an example of _____.

By defining the data into smaller groups such as gender, age, grade level, and ethnicity, it will help the counselors and teachers identify the students’ needs and proper interventions. According to Hatch, by “disaggregating data allow school counselors to focus attention where resources are needed most” (Hatch, Green-Wilkinson, Holcomb-McCoy, 2014). If the data was disaggregated, a possible intervention that appropriately utilize is the Response to intervention (RTI). RTI can assist the school counselors and teachers with monitor the students’ process as well as promote academic achievement. According to Hatch, RTI has become a “comprehensive, data-based prevention model for helping students who are struggle to achieve. (Hatch, Green-Wilkinson, Holcomb-McCoy,

There basically 7 steps to planning, implementing and evaluating special education. The first step is to Identifying the child in need. The child comes to the attention of special education services when a teacher or a parent express concern for their development, or it shows up on a screening test that suggest a possible disability. The child then is placed in preferred intervention, which is a preliminary step before special education services are offered. This early intervention aims to help children that present academic or behavioral difficulties in general education classrooms. Early intervention is valuable because it

Teachers should ensure that students have access to valid data ahead of class if students plan on using topics such as GPA, SRI score with the use of a student consent form, or data provided

According to an article, Using Student Achievement Data to Support Instructional Decision Making, one way to do this is to “establish a data team that will clarify and guide the school’s vision for the most effective use of data,” (p.34, 2009). The district put together a data team made up of a general and special education teachers, along with an administrator. This team would use the data to create professional development for the staff in the areas where the most need was seen. Clear guidelines were set to determine how the data would be used. The rules stated: " Do not use data to punish the teachers or schools, do not use data as an excuse for a quick fix, use data that is meaningful to teachers, give teachers autonomy in responding to data, look to improve practice; do not blame students or their circumstances, and there are no secrets; we share data so we can share solutions and improve” ( Love, p. 111, 2009).The team was given extensive training on how to use the data in a way where the entire staff could be involved and feel comfortable. The data team made all the data available to the entire staff and even broke it down several different ways, so that it could be viewed in a disaggregated way. They used collaboration to look at the data and determine where the most significant needs were and changes to the instruction were

Evidence-based instruction includes reliable and valuable data obtained from your classroom. When you apply basil tests, unit tests, exit slips, and acuity assessments you need to collect the data from your classroom to organize your classroom groups. You should also use this data to decide who needs AIS or tiered interventions for certain areas. Instructional practices include the previously mentioned assessments. Pretests for all units of instruction can also help you understand what your students already know and who is weak in certain areas. For example, a unit on main idea and details using passages can be difficult for some students. Running records will help to determine what reading level your students are on. From this

In this dissertation, a data-driven decision making platform is developed focusing on individuals at high risk of getting breast and ovarian cancers due to their BRCA gene mutations. First a likelihood estimation model is built based on a gradient boosting model. This model is capable of identifying individuals at high risk of having BRCA mutations based on their family and personal history of cancers. Then, a Markov decision process (MDP) model is formulated to help BRCA mutation carriers and their health providers to find effective intervention actions (based on cost or quality-adjusted life years) to prevent breast and ovarian cancers. Finally, a robust MDP (RMDP) model is presented to study the sensitivity of MDP optimal strategies under uncertainty. In what follows, I present a summary of findings in Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of this dissertation.