Content Library

Using Data to Inform Teaching Practices

San Francisco, CA (USA), November 2011 - To help educators and administrators improve how they interpret and use learning assessment data to increase student achievement, Teachscape has developed the Data-Driven Instruction Series content library.




Comprised of four new modules - two for instructional leaders and two for teachers - the series helps educators use data to make informed decisions for planning and implementing effective instruction.

"It is essential for educators to make meaningful use of the student-assessment data they have at hand", says Mark Atkinson, founder and chief strategist of Teachscape. "This series provides strategies necessary to develop and sustain a data-focused culture at both the school and district level, where data is used to make key instructional and programmatic decisions directly tied to the specific needs of students."

Modules for Leaders

The Finding Focus and Getting Results module helps school leaders to develop processes related to working with data and to implement successful strategies in their current work with data. The Leading and Supporting Effective Work with Data module focuses on the most effective ways school leaders can establish, develop, and sustain a data-focused environment in which teachers and other staff at their school are adept at using data to engage in a continuous improvement process.

Modules for Teachers

The Data-Focused Instructional Decision Making module presents opportunities for teachers to practice the process of data collection, analysis, and interpretation, as well as the decision making that results from that work. The Effective Formative Assessment module focuses on effective ways to conduct and analyze traditional and alternative methods of formative assessment. The modules include commentaries on particular topics such as formative assessment and reading, writing, and mathematics instruction.

Teachscape Professional Learning Suite

The Data-Driven Instruction Series is one of eight online content libraries in the Teachscape Professional Learning Suite. The libraries are organized into 44 separate topics that include 124 modules, including the four new ones. The modules contain more than 2,500 videos and more than 10,000 learning resources.