Data-Wise School Systems Seen as Sharing Key Traits

Schools and districts nationwide are being exhorted to use data to improve instruction. But what does that advice look like in practice?

That’s the question addressed by a new study that examined two midsize urban districts and two nonprofit charter-management organizations with records of improving student achievement over time and of grounding their decisionmaking in data.

While the effective use of data can look quite different from place to place, the researchers concluded, the school systems studied had all built a strong foundation for data use by setting specific, measurable goals for student performance at the system, school, and classroom...