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Abstract:
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Federal policies such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB ) and Race to the Top (RTT ) stand as examples of how teachers face increasing expectations that their activities be “data -based” or “data -driven .” Meeting these expectations requires assembling and analyzing a wide variety of data about students (e .g . , demographics , discipline , locally designed tests , state test results , or longitudinal information ) . Computer data systems are commonly assumed to facilitate the work of educational data use . Indeed , the availability and computing power of these systems have continued to expand , further increasing the promises that these technologies hold for enhancing teaching and learning .
Meaningful and widespread changes to teachers’ practices , however , have typically not occurred on a large -scale or systemic basis . Therefore , in this comparative case study of three school districts I examine the nature of districts’ efforts to improve teachers’ data use via computer data systems . I do so by examining the worldviews of various job roles in each district about data use and computer data systems .
An erroneous assumption commonly made by districts was that these technologies are imbued with self -evident and predetermined effects on teacher work . Accordingly , the findings from this study speak to issues of sensemaking in districts . In them , I describe not only how teachers’ perspectives shaped their practices , but also how the alignment of perspectives among district roles influenced the implementation and success of district initiatives around computer data systems . As such , this study has implications for how districts plan , implement , and learn from initiatives around data use . |