Data is one of the most powerful guides to instructional efficacy, revealing insights about the students you serve. Author Michael Roberts challenges educators to move past correlative data to active, data-driven decision making. Learn how to analyze data with a real sense of purpose, uncovering the causal data needed to build effective interventions and innovative teaching strategies that enhance achievement for every student.
K–12 teachers, school leaders, and administrators can use this book to: - Implement data as an insightful complement to teacher experience, knowledge, and skill
- Analyze data actively and more effectively, finding patterns to inform actionable plans
- Embrace data as a guide for improvement, not a means to threaten and blame
- Cultivate teamwork, trust, and vision among educators sharing data across their school
- Champion efficacy as the guiding principle toward data-driven decisions and changes
Contents: Introduction
Chapter 1: Data Collection and Compliance Versus Data Use
Chapter 2: The Facts Versus Your Gut
Chapter 3: Data Observation Versus Data Analysis
Chapter 4: Data as a Tool Versus Data as a Punishment
Chapter 5: My Data Versus Our Data
Chapter 6: The Way We’ve Always Done It Versus Finding a Way That Works
Chapter 7: Data Compliance Versus Data Ownership
Chapter 8: Work-Arounds Versus Plow-Throughs
Epilogue
References and Resources
Index
Michael Roberts is an author and consultant with more than two decades of experience in education. He has been an administrator at the district level and has served as an on-site administrator at the high school, middle school, and elementary school levels.
Prior to his stint as director of elementary curriculum and instruction in Scottsdale, Arizona, Michael was principal of Desert View Elementary School (DVES) in Hermiston, Oregon. Under his leadership, DVES produced evidence of increased learning each year from 2013 to 2017 for all students and met the challenges of 40 percent growth over four years, a rising population of English learners, and a dramatic increase in the number of trauma-affected students. Michael attributes the success of DVES to the total commitment of staff to the three big ideas and the four critical questions of a professional learning community. This commitment led to a schoolwide transition from me to we—a fundamental shift in thinking that made all the difference.
Previously, Michael served as an assistant principal in Prosser, Washington, where he was named the 2010–2011 Three Rivers Principal Association Assistant Principal of the Year. In 2011–2012, he was a finalist for Washington Assistant Principal of the Year.
Michael earned his bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Washington State University and his master’s degree in educational leadership from Azusa Pacific University.
To learn more about Michael’s work, visit https://everykidnow.com, or follow him @everykidnow on X or Instagram.
