The Politics of Data Use

by Jeffrey R. Henig
This article reviews political science theories and findings to inform our understanding of how politics affects efforts to increase data usage in education policy and school reform. Rather than block the door to politics, those who hope to promote informed policy making might consider ways to use politics to protect and defend high-quality data.
post a comment

Data, Dyads, and Dynamics: Exploring Data Use and Social Networks in Educational Improvement

by Alan J. Daly
This article offers that many data use studies suggest that the interpretation and use of data take place both within and between individuals who, through social interaction, are both co-constructing and making sense of data and their use. Given the increasing important role of social relationships in data use studies, better theorizing and deeper understanding regarding the dynamics of social influence and processes on the interpretation and use of data are needed. Social network theory and analysis offers a useful conceptual framework and accompanying methods for describing and analyzing the structure of a social system in an effort to understand how social relationships support and constrain the interpretation and use of data in educational improvement.
post a comment

Why “Engineering” Teacher Evaluation Systems is Best

by Nicole B. Kersting
New teacher evaluation systems are being designed, implemented and piloted in many states. The goal of these new systems is to provide more accurate and objective information on teacher performance than current systems do. Ideally, these new systems provide information for accountability purposes but also for helping teachers improve their performance. Achieving these goals is not likely unless we change our approach to designing such systems from a political process and adopt an engineering perspective. Taking an engineering design approach can lead to solid designs for teacher evaluation systems, provide opportunities for improvement through monitoring and feedback, and create accountability for the design process because the information on teacher performance these systems do provide can be evaluated against the goals and intended uses that were specified.