Putting Data Into Practice

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New Education Sector report explores New York City's data system and draws important lessons for other districts.

Over the past decade, school districts and states have made impressive advances in collecting and managing data used for accountability purposes. By the year 2011, all 50 states will have systems to track student progress from year to year. But in most states and districts, the data generated by these systems flows only one way: up. It goes from school to district, from district to state, and from state to the federal government.

As a result, according to Putting Data Into Practice, a new report from Education Sector, most data systems are “failing to fulfill their highest mission—to change what actually happens in the classroom.” Many systems aren’t designed to provide teachers, let alone students, with access. Thus, it is no surprise that electronic data systems still have minimal influence on classroom-level decision-making.

The report, written by Managing Director Bill Tucker, looks at how one school district, New York City, has created an evidence-based and collaborative teaching culture. Few other districts have embraced the use of data like the nation's largest school system. "Seen from the perspective of both its obstacles and successes, New York’s experience holds valuable lessons for all school districts about how to succeed with the critical second component of the drive for data—using the information to improve student performance," Tucker argues in the report.

"The best teachers have always used information about their students to help them improve instruction—and they know that more and better information can lead to even better results," writes Tucker. "Yet, unlike for almost all other professionals who perform complex, demanding work, the information tools available to teachers have been remarkably limited."

That is no longer true in New York City. Today, teachers can access students' interim test scores, subject grades, attendance records, and English language learner status—all on a single computer screen. They can also check on how students are doing in other classes, allowing them to spot students who are at risk much earlier.

New York City teachers also work together in "inquiry teams" to share data and talk about what they think it means. Today, although the system is far from perfect, it has won the support of teachers and building-level administrators as a valuable tool for improving instruction. Sixty-five percent of the city’s educators are now participating in a form of "collaborative inquiry," up from 10 percent in the program’s first year.

Data also is increasingly being used to empower parents and students in the city. The report highlights the personalized College Readiness Tracker, a tool that allows students and families to track which classes and state Regents' courses students have passed and to identify the classes they need to take to be admitted to college.

Putting Data Into Practice reveals two key lessons that other districts can learn from New York City. First, "even if the technology works, it holds little value unless it is flexible and relevant, and unless it incorporates the sort of fine-grained information that teachers really need." And second, building a data system is only the first step—building the conditions and demand for data-based analysis is often more difficult than collecting the data itself.

The country is now entering the second phase of a costly and concerted push to use data to improve educational outcomes, writes Tucker. As such, the challenge is no longer whether to build institutional data systems, but how to use the data that the best of these systems provide to make a difference in the classroom. The report concludes with set of five design principles that should inform these next steps.

Read Putting Data Into Practice: Lessons From New York City.