A Case Study Of School Improvement Supported By Data

At present,more and more schools are in the transition from traditional management mode to data governance mode,and they hope to improve their schools by using data.In theory,data-based practices do lead schools in the right direction and are more effective at improving.In order to explore the practical influence of this theory in school improvement,this study chooses to start from the practical level and adopts the method of case study to try to present the whole picture of the data use practice of primary school L,and answer the following questions in the process:(1)What data does primary school L have?(2)How did primary school L use different data to influence its improvement?(3)What are the results of improving by using data in primary school L?(4)How did primary school L improve? What factors are at work?(5)What are the problems that primary school L still face in using data?The study found that,firstly,although there were a lot of data in primary school L,its structure was not balanced,especially the lack of process data.Secondly,as for the use of data,different subjects have different demands on the use of data.Among them,the principal is the central figure in the use of school data.Typically,data is used by principals for two types of purposes: diagnosing problems and making decisions.For teachers,the explicit data use behaviors can be divided into two aspects:improving teaching and promoting the evaluation of students’ growth.Thirdly,primary school L has achieved obvious improvement effect through the use of data,which is mainly reflected in more refined school management,continuous optimization of curriculum quality,improvement of principal’s data leadership,more objective evaluation of students and closer home-school relationship.Fourthly,there are five major factors influencing the use of data in primary school L,including the principal’s data use leadership,the school members’ data literacy,professional external support,the quality of school data and the extensive participation of community members.Among them,the leadership of data using is the decisive factor,and the other factors influence the effectiveness of school’s data use in different extent.Fifthly,primary school L still faces the following problems in the use of data,including insufficient systematic teaching data,underdeveloped professional literacy of school members,pressure caused by data sensitivity and resistance of school organizational culture.Through the detailed analysis of the case school’s data using practices,I make further theoretical thinking.I believe that the practice of using data in schools needs to pay attention to four key issues,that is,to clarify the essence of data supporting school improvement,to dialectically understand the school improvement supported by data,to explore the data use mode promoting teaching decision and to construct a clear school data opening system.Finally,based on this study,I propose a theoretical framework for the use of data in schools,hoping to inspire education researchers and practitioners to discuss and think more about the use of data in schools.