Analysis and discussion of classroom and achievement data to raise student achievement

Abstract

In New Zealand, there is evidence that analysing data in teams can lead to improvements in student achievement. In this country, data discussions in professional learning communities were an important component of research and development interventions in three clusters of schools. These interventions significantly improved student achievement over 3 years, and these achievement gains were sustained after the interventions. In this chapter, the authors focus on a central feature of these data discussions, understanding classroom instruction in relation to student achievement patterns. The importance of inter-dependence between schools and external experts, greater pedagogical content knowledge to link classroom instruction to achievement results and the creation and use of school artefacts (e.g., data analysis reports) to facilitate effective data use are also discussed.