Product Description

"Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement" (First Edition, 1998, Second Edition, 2004)

What separates successful schools from those that will not be successful in their reform efforts is the use of one, often neglected, essential element—data. With clear and concrete examples from both elementary and secondary schools, "Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement" shows what data to gather and how to use data to improve all aspects of schools. "Data Analysis" enables you to find out where you are, where you want to be, and how to get there—sensibly, painlessly, and effectively.

Schools are powerful organizations. Every day, across the United States, schools are impacting the lives of millions of children and the future of our very existence. Schools become even more powerfully efficient and effective when data play an active role in their operations.

The purposes of this book are to update the original "Data Analysis for Comprehensive Schoolwide Improvement" book with new and improved strategies and knowledge, and to clarify:

• why data are important and what data to gather
• how data—gathered, analyzed, and properly used—can make a difference in meeting the needs of every student in the school
•how to communicate and report data results
• the data analyses required to meet "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) legislation

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #236619 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From the Publisher
Solve your school's problems by using data.

This book shows you how to:
• replace hunches and hypotheses with facts
• identify the root causes of problems
• measure progress toward comprehensive schoolwide improvement
• effectively gather and use data to make better decisions

With clear and concrete examples from schools, "Data Analysis for Comprehensive Schoolwide Improvement" shows you how to:
• clarify what data are important
• use and analyze data
• communicate and report results

This book enables you to find and use the following types of data:
• demographics
• attendance/enrollment
• drop-out/graduation rates
• assessments of current teaching practices
• teachers', students', administrators', & parents' perceptions of the learning environment

From the Author
I am passionate about the impact data analyses make on building strong schools, teachers, administrators, and district, county, regional, state, and national education systems. Data not only tell us where we have been, where we are right now, and where we are going; data inform us of the ways to get there, sensibly.

This book is not a statistics text. It shows how to use data to gain answers to logical questions and to understand current and future impact. Examples from real schools illustrate the points.

With the enactment of "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB), data analysis is no longer optional! The requirements take us deep into the data to help us identify and uncover powerful solutions to schools' greatest challenges. I believe we have to look more systematically and deeper than we are used to looking to get to analyses that will make the difference. We must also look at other data sources besides our required state assessments.

This second edition includes updated and new information gathered since the publication of the first edition. It also includes some of the same information included in other books I've written—at the request of the book reviewers and participants in workshops using the "Data Analysis" book.

I want this book to contribute to the success of schools and districts throughout the United States and abroad, because… I want schools to prove that they can help ALL children learn and be all they want to be in the future.

About the Author
Victoria L. Bernhardt, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Education for the Future Initiative, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to build the capacity of all schools at all levels to gather, analyze, and use data to continuously improve learning for all students. She is also a Professor, on leave, in the Department of Professional Studies in Education, College of Communication and Education, at California State University, Chico.

Dr. Bernhardt is passionate about her mission of helping all educators continuously improve student learning in their classrooms, their schools, their districts, and states by gathering, analyzing, and using actual data—as opposed to using hunches and "gut-level" feelings. She has made numerous presentations at professional meetings and has conducted thousands of workshops on the school portfolio, data analysis, and school improvement at local, state, regional, national, and international levels.

Dr. Bernhardt is the author of the following books:

• Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement (First Edition, 1998; Second Edition, 2004)

• A four-book collection, with CD-Roms, of using data to improve student learning—Using Data to Improve Student Learning in Elementary Schools (2003); Using Data to Improve Student Learning in Middle Schools (2004); Using Data to Improve Student Learning in High Schools (not yet published); Using Data to Improve Student Learning in Districts (no yet published)

• The School Portfolio Toolkit: A Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation Guide for Continuous School Improvement, and CD-Rom (2002)

• The Example School Portfolio (2000)

• Designing and Using Databases for School Improvement (2000)

• The School Portfolio: A Comprehensive Framework for School Improvement (First Edition, 1994; Second Edition, 1999)

Customer Reviews

This book is a critical part of any educators library.
This book is a companion to Barnhardt's work on the school portfolio. It is a beautiful introduction to basic data analysis for teachers and administrators in today's schools. The introduction to data bases, the importance of clear identification of dissagregation points and simple but critical rules of good action research make it a must for anyone interested in real accountability and reflective practice.

Victoria's Secret - great data resource
Victoria Bernhardt has hit another "home run" with her book "Data Analysis for Continuous Improvement". Victoria's secret is her strong recommendation to use multiple measures of data to make instructional decisions. She clearly explains how to do this in her book.

If you're buying this, you HAVE to - but there are better choices
This book contains a lot of good information, but is very redundant - the charts and graphs retell what is written in the text, and it "talks down" to the reader.

If you're buying this book, you probably HAVE TO for a class or something; if you're looking for a book for reference reading, skip it and find a better choice.