Leading Schools in a Data-Rich World

Abstract

Not so long ago, decisions in education were based on the best judgments of the people in authority, using a combination of privileged and tacit knowledge of the context, political savvy, professional training and logical analysis. Data played almost no part in decisions. Now, there is no escaping data in education. Accountability has become the watchword of education and data hold a central place in large-scale reform. Educational leaders have mixed feelings about this shift. Certainly, there is considerable evidence that using data can be the impetus for conscious attention to educational issues that might not have been considered without them (Firestone et al., 1998; Earl and Torrance, 2000). Data about schools capture the attention of the public and work as extrinsic motivation to encourage action where it might otherwise be absent. These are not the only consequences, however. There have also been unintended consequences of centralized public accountability systems, particularly from high-stakes testing and public reporting. As a result, school leaders are often apprehensive about data, and sometimes even feel like victims of unfair judgments based on data (Johnson, 1996)