Are They Using the Data? Teacher Perceptions of, Practices with, and Preparation to Use Assessment Data

Abstract

Teacher instructional and curricular choices should be informed by student level assessment data; however, there is a dearth of empirical research documenting teachers’ perceptions, uses, and preparation to use assessment data. To address this gap in understanding, we surveyed teachers working in two public school districts in the western United States, resulting in a sample consisting of 52 K-12 teachers. Our results revealed a number of relationships between engaging in professional development, uses of assessment data, and perceptions of the value of the data. We found a number of anticipated relationships, including that teachers who are more comfortable using assessment data in their practice tend to feel less overwhelmed with using assessment data. We also found several paradoxical relationships such as the more teachers engage in professional learning communities the less they create and use common assessments. Our research has a number of important implications for structuring teacher professional development in ways that enhance effective use of assessment data by educators to inform their practice. Our findings also provide a foundation for a deeper examination of teacher perceptions of, uses of, and preparation to use assessment data.