Congratulations to Melanie Lofaro who on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, successfully defended her dissertation proposal. The title of Melanie’s dissertation is: Investigating the Conditions for Data Practices in Schools: A Case Study of School Data Teams.
The use of data in schools is a promising practice with the potential to make impacts on students; yet, school professionals also find data analysis challenging and data aren’t necessarily being analyzed in a strategic way in each teacher’s classroom or across the school. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to understand how members of three school data teams across one school district utilize a data protocol, specifically the Harvard Data Wise protocol, to inform their decisions about analysis of student data. Drawing upon Schildkamp’s (2019) model of data-based decision-making, this study further seeks to describe how data team members and school leaders use the data protocol to engage in sensemaking of student data and then take action based on data. Understanding how a data protocol with elements of DBDM can support school data team members in analyzing student data and developing action plans would be valuable for other educators in the field.
Dissertation Committee Co-Chairs:
Dr. Susan V. Iverson
Dr. Martin Fitzgerald
Dissertation Committee Member:
Dr. Kris Defilippis
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