Central Office Supports for Data-Driven Talent Management Decisions

School districts increasingly push school leaders to utilize multiple measures of teacher effectiveness, such as observation ratings or value-added scores, in making talent management decisions, including teacher hiring, assignment, support, and retention, but we know little about the local conditions that promote or impede these processes. We investigate the barriers to principals’ use of teacher effectiveness measures in eight urban districts and charter management organizations that are investing in new systems for collecting such measures and making them available to school leaders and the supports central offices are building to help principals overcome those barriers. Interviews with more than 175 central and school leaders identify barriers in three main areas related to accessing measures, analyzing them, and taking action based on their analysis. Supports fall into four categories: professional development, connecting principals to sources of expertise, creating new structures or tools, and building a data use culture. Survey analysis suggests that indeed principals in high support systems perceive lower barriers to data use and report greater incorporation of teacher effectiveness measures into their talent management decisions.

[1]  Jason A. Grissom,et al.  Using Teacher Effectiveness Data for Information-Rich Hiring , 2017 .

[2]  Jason A. Grissom,et al.  Improving Teacher Evaluation Systems: Making the Most of Multiple Measures. , 2015 .

[3]  Jason A. Grissom,et al.  Strategic Staffing? How Performance Pressures Affect the Distribution of Teachers Within Schools and Resulting Student Achievement , 2015 .

[4]  Jason A. Grissom,et al.  Make Room Value Added , 2015 .

[5]  Benjamin K. Master.  Staffing for Success , 2014 .

[6]  K. Charmaz,et al.  Constructing Grounded Theory , 2014 .

[7]  Morgaen L. Donaldson.  Principals’ Approaches to Cultivating Teacher Effectiveness , 2013 .

[8]  Stacey A. Rutledge,et al.  The Infrastructure of Accountability: Data Use and the Transformation of American Education. , 2013 .

[9]  Lora Cohen-Vogel,et al.  Leading With Data: Evidence From the National Center on Scaling up Effective Schools , 2013 .

[10]  Cassandra M. Guarino,et al.  How Do Principals Assign Students to Teachers? Finding Evidence in Administrative Data and the Implications for Value-Added , 2013, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[11]  Caitlin Farrell.  Designing School Systems to Encourage Data Use and Instructional Improvement , 2015 .

[12]  Julie A. Marsh,et al.  Interventions Promoting Educators’ Use of Data: Research Insights and Gaps , 2012, Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education.

[13]  James A. Levin,et al.  The principal role in data-driven decision making: using case-study data to develop multi-mediator models of educational reform , 2012 .

[14]  Paul N Goren,et al.  Data, Data, and More Data—What’s an Educator to Do? , 2012, American Journal of Education.

[15]  Meredith I. Honig,et al.  School–Central Office Relationships in Evidence Use: Understanding Evidence Use as a Systems Problem , 2012, American Journal of Education.

[16]  P. Moss.  Exploring the Macro-Micro Dynamic in Data Use Practice , 2012, American Journal of Education.

[17]  James P. Spillane.  Data in Practice: Conceptualizing the Data-Based Decision-Making Phenomena , 2012, American Journal of Education.

[18]  C. Coburn,et al.  The Practice of Data Use: An Introduction , 2011, American Journal of Education.

[19]  J. Little.  Understanding Data Use Practice among Teachers: The Contribution of Micro-Process Studies , 2011, American Journal of Education.

[20]  Lora Cohen-Vogel.  “Staffing to the Test” , 2011 .

[21]  C. Coburn,et al.  Research on Data Use: A Framework and Analysis , 2011 .

[22]  Mario Luis Small,et al.  How to Conduct a Mixed Methods Study: Recent Trends in a Rapidly Growing Literature , 2011 .

[23]  Laura M. Desimone,et al.  A Primer on Effective Professional Development , 2011 .

[24]  B. Jacob,et al.  Do Principals Fire the Worst Teachers? , 2010 .

[25]  Amanda Datnow,et al.  Creating a system for data-driven decision-making: applying the principal-agent framework , 2008 .

[26]  C. Coburn,et al.  Evidence-Based Decision Making in School District Central Offices , 2008 .

[27]  Ellen B. Mandinach,et al.  Data-Driven School Improvement: Linking Data and Learning. Technology, Education--Connections (TEC) Series. , 2008 .

[28]  Juliet M. Corbin,et al.  Basics of Qualitative Research (3rd ed.): Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory , 2008 .

[29]  Silvia Wen-Yu Lee,et al.  Reviewing the evidence on how teacher professional development affects student achievement , 2007 .

[30]  chapter 6 Culture and Processes Affecting Data Use in School Districts , 2007 .

[31]  John F. Pane,et al.  Making Sense of Data-Driven Decision Making in Education , 2006 .

[32]  M. Knapp,et al.  Data-Informed Leadership in Education. , 2006 .

[33]  Julie A. Marsh,et al.  Strategies to Promote Data Use for Instructional Improvement: Actions, Outcomes, and Lessons fromThree Urban Districts , 2006, American Journal of Education.

[34]  Richard Halverson,et al.  The New Instructional Leadership: Creating Data-Driven Instructional Systems in School , 2007 .

[35]  Jeffrey C. Wayman,et al.  Involving Teachers in Data-Driven Decision Making: Using Computer Data Systems to Support Teacher Inquiry and Reflection , 2005 .

[36]  K. Ludmerer.  Creating the System , 2005 .

[37]  A. Onwuegbuzie,et al.  Mixed Methods Research: A Research Paradigm Whose Time Has Come , 2004 .

[38]  R. Schroeder,et al.  Accountability Policies and Teacher Decision Making: Barriers to the Use of Data to Improve Practice. , 2004 .

[39]  Nancy Love.  Taking Data to New Depths: There's a Ton of Data Being Collected. The Trick Is to Know How to Use It Effectively. , 2004 .

[40]  Jonathan A. Supovitz,et al.  Mapping a Course for Improved Student Learning: How Innovative Schools Systematically Use Student Performance Data to Guide Improvement , 2003 .

[41]  T. Guskey.  Does It Make a Difference? Evaluating Professional Development , 2002 .

[42]  Rosann Tung,et al.  Whole School Reform: How Schools Use the Data-Based Inquiry and Decision Making Process. , 2001 .

[43]  N. Hoffart.  Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory , 2000 .

[44]  Jean J. Schensul,et al.  Analyzing & interpreting ethnographic data , 1999 .

[45]  Anselm L. Strauss,et al.  Basics of qualitative research : techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory , 1998 .

[46]  T. Guskey.  Staff Development and the Process of Teacher Change , 1986 .