CRESPAR Report #67: Software Enabling School Improvement Through Analysis of Student Data

Abstract

The No Child Left Behind legislation has drawn increased attention to student data. Data are most useful in educational decision-making when the purpose extends beyond vertical accountability and toward school- and classroom-level decision-making that enhances the experience and achievement of students. This necessarily involves getting practical data analyses into the hands of teachers and administrators. Recent technological advances in data warehousing and presentation have resulted in tools that can, in theory, facilitate educator use of student data. However, the use of these tools is not yet widespread. In this report, the authors consider issues surrounding the use of student data and data based decision-making, describing the state of the field and possible future directions, present reviews of a range of commercially available software for analyzing student data, and provide and maintain a website that will contain ongoing updates of software reviews.