Professional Development Resources

This form is very helpful to begin thinking about how data can be used to inform instruction. It provides simple guiding questions and follows with simple reflection prompts.

Use this template to engage in your own classroom action research project. For help, contact Allison Finn Yemez.

The effective use of student data can be the impetus for educators to improve learning and wellbeing outcomes, and/or student social and emotional learning. However, simply having data offers very little insight. The value comes from being able to interpret what the data means for individuals, groups and whole classes of students, and then to use it to make decisions about classroom instruction and wellbeing interventions. Data informed practice is the systematic use of a variety of forms and levels of data by educators for this very purpose — improving student learning, classroom practice and overall wellbeing.

An instructor at UCLA's Graduate School of Education shares 3 different ways to use data in the classroom to guide instruction through intentional planning.

The purpose of education is the improvement of student achievement. While we may argue about how this may be measured—and there is no doubt that some aspects of achievement are more easily measured than others—the purpose of education is to change learners; to enable them to do things that they could not previously do.