Understanding Student Learning: The Need for Education Data
This informational resource provides an overview of the types of data that schools often collect as well as the purposes behind data use. The main topics are:
What types of data do schools collect?
How do schools use student education data to help individual students?
Who needs education data?
Additionally, the article briefly addresses data security.
The purposes of this short publication are not directly stated; however, this resource is basically a summary of the types of data often collected in schools and its uses. Methodology is adequate and the publication promotes data use in a fair manner. The content is brief and broad, generally already well-known by teachers, school administrators and education leaders. Parents and the public are therefore the more probable users. Communications quality is good. This is a short, easy-to-read publication with simple language and a nice design. Evidence of effectiveness is not discussed and the general nature of the article’s content suggests only a modest potential for impact on learning.