Analyzing and Reporting Data

Regional centers, state education agencies, local education agencies, schools, and educator preparation programs each have a role to play in gathering, analyzing, and reporting data. Moreover, these multiple stakeholders should participate in the Title I Equity Planning process. Through this analysis and reporting, stakeholder groups come to understand the root causes of equity gaps in their region, state, district, or school, thus driving the policy priorities and actions to consider.

The GTL Center has developing a Stakeholder Engagment Guide and additional resources to support state education agencies in this important work. 

What Can I Do to Support Equitable Access to Great Teachers and Leaders?

Strategies to Consider

  • Determine Measures for Long-Term Analysis

    Develop partnerships with key stakeholders (e.g., in an equity workgroup) to determine what metrics to use to continuously measure long-term access to excellent teachers and leaders. 
  • Ensure Accurate and Clear Data Reporting

    To ensure full public access, make certain that reporting is technically accurate and complete and includes a user-friendly executive summary for lay people. 

  • Examine Data Patterns With School Districts

    Work with local education agencies and state educator effectiveness advisory bodies to analyze, compare, and use data from identified high-quality educator evaluation systems to determine root causes of equity gaps in access to excellent teachers and leaders between and within districts. 

  • Work With Stakeholders to Analyze Patterns in Data

    Find out whether a regional educational laboratory serving a state education agency can analyze extant data to help the state understand key patterns of equity gaps.

  • Work With Stakeholders to Develop a Framework to Analyze Data

    Regional comprehensive center staff can assist state education agency and educator preparation program staff to develop a framework for analyzing data. 

Resources

  • An Analysis of State Data on the Distribution of Teaching Assignments Filled by Highly Qualified Teachers in New York Schools (REL Northeast & Islands)

    New York rural schools and districts have a high percentage of core teaching assignments filled by highly qualified teachers; there are only small differences across key factors such as poverty and the need for school improvement. Urban schools—particularly those in New York City—have fewer core assignments filled by highly qualified teachers.

    http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?ProjectID=41
  • Do Low-Income Students Have Equal Access to the Highest-Performing Teachers?

    This brief describes the prevalence of the highest performing teachers in 10 purposely selected districts across seven states. The patterns suggest that students from low-income families have unequal access, on average, to the district’s highest performing teachers at the middle school level but not at the elementary level. The data also indicate that there is variation in the types of inequitable access: Some districts have an underrepresentation of the highest performing teachers in high-poverty elementary and middle schools. Others have underrepresentation only at the middle school level, and one district has a disproportionate share of the district’s highest performing teachers in its high-poverty elementary schools.

    http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20114016/pdf/20114016.pdf
  • GTL Center Concurrent Session: Using Performance Data for the Equitable Distribution of Teachers

    During this interactive session, presenters discussed the use of performance data to support equitable access to great teachers from different perspectives. Researchers described the efforts that districts across the United States are making to address equity gaps in using performance measures, along with the challenges and the opportunities of using value-added models to examine access to great teachers. State-level policies and practices to support this work also were discussed, with Georgia as an example. Participants were given the opportunity to discuss barriers, strategies, and solutions to using performance data to ensure equitable access to excellent teachers. 

    http://www.gtlcenter.org/content/concurrent-sessions-iii-implementation-challenges-system-approach-informed-data-use
  • Mid-Atlantic Comprehensive Center and Delaware Equity Study

    As part of their 2006 equity plan, state education agency personnel in Delaware sought to conduct an in-depth analysis to understand the reasons behind the teacher access patterns in the state. Staff from the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality supported the development of research-based protocols for this analysis. A webcast presentation describing the work and options for regional centers is available.

    http://tqsource.airws.org/toolbox/ED3_Example_Delaware.php
  • The Distribution of Teaching and Learning Resources in California’s Middle and High Schools (REL West)

    Access to important educational resources in California’s middle and high schools is not equal among schools that serve different student populations. Overall, the most disadvantaged populations of middle and high school students are likely to have the least access to the resources necessary for learning.

    http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?ProjectID=83
  • Two of a Kind: Are Your Districts’ Evaluation Systems Equivalent?

    This Ask the Team brief from the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders examines different state methods for ensuring equivalency between district evaluation systems. For the purposes of comparing data for discussions of inequitable access to great teachers and leaders, ensuring state equivalency in system development is of key importance. 

    http://www.gtlcenter.org/sites/default/files/docs/GTL_AskTeam_TwoOfAKind.pdf