Administrators face huge challenges in using student data to inform strategic decision-making. Some face a tangle of dashboards and formats with no clear system for cleaning and merging data. Even when the data is cleaned and organized, it is hard to interpret! How can we get beyond looking at data dashboards or comparing mean scores?

The Reading Ways Data Literacy Course

This course is designed specifically for educational leaders responsible for analyzing district student data. There are no statistical prerequisites for this course. In this 10 lecture course we start with describing data and looking at correlations and end with multivariate regression analysis. The key resources for the course are:

• Power points, movies and syntax files hosted on our learning platform
• In person meetings using your district data
• The book Understanding Statistics in Psychology
• The STATA statistics program

During the course, participants build on existing templates to create two syntax files. The first one imports and cleans the data that you have access to. The second one runs a report. Both syntax files are annotated thoroughly so that the year after the course your team can replicate the merging, cleaning, and reporting process. The goal is to establish a system which will allow your district to flexibly use data across grade levels to answer important questions and inform your strategic vision.

The report Participants in the data course each create their own reports to answer questions that are the most relevant for their school. Here are some examples from our most recent participants.

How did students perform on the 2019 ELA State Achievement Exam?

What was the historical achievement profile of students who were eligible for ELA accommodations in 2019

Contact us if you would like more information including access to the course materials and an example local literacy plan.

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