From Data to Action: A Community Approach to Improving Youth Outcomes (HEL Impact Series) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1612505465 ISBN 13: 9781612505466

Publisher: Harvard Education Press, 2013

Synopsis

This book is a welcome guide for educators, civic leaders, and researchers looking for ways to leverage data to identify the most effective policies, interventions, and use of resources for their communities.

In the current era of reform, much has been made of the fact that there are many influences that shape children beyond the walls of the schoolhouse. Powerful data “warehouses” have been built to track children and interventions within school bureaucracies and in other social service sectors. Yet these data systems are rarely linked to provide a holistic view of how individual children are faring both in and out of school and which interventions—or combinations thereof—are most promising. Privacy laws and institutional traditions have made such collaborations difficult, if not impossible. Until now.

The Youth Data Archive, based at the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University, is an effort to blaze a new path to the productive use of cross-agency data now employed by researchers, school officials, and service providers in San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, and Santa Clara counties.

Editors Milbrey McLaughlin and Rebecca A. London, leaders of the Youth Data Archive, bring together participants who describe the initiative and its challenges and successes. The participants also give detailed background on how the archive was built and how it has led to improvements in services, particularly for children at risk. This book is a welcome guide for educators, civic leaders, and researchers looking for ways to leverage data to identify the most effective policies, interventions, and use of resources for their communities.

About this title

From the Back Cover

From Data to Action is a welcome guide for leaders who are looking for ways to archive and analyze data from schools and agencies across their communities to improve policy making and programs for children and teens.

Editors Milbrey McLaughlin and Rebecca A. London bring together participants of the Youth Data Archive at Stanford University. The participants describe its unique effort to overcome legal and other hurdles in blazing a new path for the more productive use of cross-agency data. The chapters give detailed background on how the archive was built and how its findings have led to improvements in services, particularly for children at risk.

“From Data to Action is a timely, compelling, and important book that addresses how school and other community leaders can go even further toward understanding the strengths and needs of their students—by gathering data from agencies across their communities, studying and archiving the information, and using it to improve teaching and learning.” — From the foreword by Thomas W. Payzant, former professor of practice, Harvard Graduate School of Education

“This pioneering book vividly reports on how local leaders, now armed with thick evidence, make sure that no student falls through the cracks. From Philly to San Francisco, From Data to Action reports on inspiring progress in how activists and scholars are pulling together to elevate the next generation.” — Bruce Fuller, professor, education and public policy, University of California, Berkeley

“From Data to Action is an important and courageous book that powerfully illustrates how data created and shared with the community can simultaneously advance scholarship and the quality of life of children and their families. McLaughlin and London’s honest account of the strengths and difficulties of democratic, actionable research is simply invaluable for developing and sustaining meaningful university-community partnerships.” — Ira Harkavy, associate vice president and director, Netter Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania

Milbrey McLaughlin is the David Jacks Professor of Education and Public Policy, Emerita, at Stanford University and the founding director of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Communities. Rebecca A. London is a senior researcher at the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Communities and the researcher overseeing all analyses conducted with the Youth Data Archive.

About the Author

Milbrey McLaughlin is the David Jacks Professor of Education and Public Policy, Emerita, at Stanford University and the founding director of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Communities. Rebecca A. London is a senior researcher at the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Communities and the researcher overseeing all analyses conducted with the Youth Data Archive.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Education Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1612505465
• ISBN 13: 9781612505466
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 216
• Editor: McLaughlin Milbrey W., London Rebecca A.