Can we change teachers’ attitudes and knowledge in
determining their own educator effectiveness by
looking through the lenses of data literacy, district
benchmarks, and student growth? This session will
include an overview of an action research project on
increasing teachers’ self-efficacy and demonstration of
the Benchmark Dashboard in Home Base.
On National Teacher Day, meet the 2024-25 Kenan Fellows
Increasing the Teacher's Effectiveness Toolbox
1.
2. Using Action Research
To Empower North Carolina Educators
A Race to the Top Initiative
NC Department of Public Instruction
Educator Effectiveness Division
4. What is Action Research?
Systematic inquiry conducted by teachers and
other educators to find solutions for critical,
challenging, relevant issues in their classrooms and
schools.
Mills, Geoffrey E, Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher,
2014
5. What is Action Research?
Main Goals Include:
•Positively impact student outcomes
•Identify and promote effective instructional
practices
•Create opportunities for teachers to become
reflective practitioners
•Share research results with other educators
Mills, Geoffrey E, Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher,
2014
6. What is Action Research?
A systematic research process to:
● Identify an area of focus (critical, challenging
issue)
● Develop an action research plan
● Implement action research plan in
classroom/school
● Collect, analyze, and interpret data
● Share findings to inform practice
Mills, Geoffrey E, Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 2014
7. Title of Project
•What is the problem of practice investigated?
•Why is this important?
•Who would benefit from reviewing my research?
•How will this innovation benefit students?
8. Problems of Practice
•Design an activity for your participants to
generate or brainstorm lists of problems of
practice within their school setting
•Remember how you generated lists of issues and
instructional challenges from your own
experiences during summer training
•This is a good time to get your participants up
and talking
9. What the Peer-Reviewed
Research says about…
TEACHERS’ CONCERNS
“Like other constructs, such as intelligence and self-
concept, a teacher’s concerns about an innovation
cannot be directly observed and measured. It can only
be inferred from the measurement of some
predefined affective dimensions.”
Cheung, D., Hattie, J., & Ng, D. (2001). Reexamining the Stages of Concern Questionnaire: A Test of
Alternative Models. Journal Of Educational Research, 94(4), 226.
10. What the Peer-Reviewed
Research says about…
TEACHERS’ DATA LITERACY
“Given that ‘[a]n aim of data-driven decision making
is to link the results of summative testing to
formative information systems that teachers can use
to improve instruction across school’, it appears vital
to have teachers who are data-literate and
collaboratively involved in the DBDM process.”
Crum, K. (2009). Building the Foundation for Data-Based Decision Making: Creating Consensus on
Language and Concepts. International Electronic Journal For Leadership In Learning, 13(5),
11. What the Peer-Reviewed
Research says about…
BENCHMARK ASSESSMENTS
“District administrators often cited intentions that the
assessments would be used to inform instruction. However,
the realization of instructional purposes was limited by the
type of information provided by predominantly multiple
choice items, a lack of substantive professional development,
and minimal coherence with respect to shared understandings
of assessment purposes and uses across district, school, and
classroom levels.”
Davidson, K. L., Frohbieter, G., & National Center for Research on Evaluation, S. T. (2011). District
Adoption and Implementation of Interim and Benchmark Assessments. CRESST Report 806. National
Center For Research On Evaluation, Standards, And Student Testing (CRESST),
12. What the Peer-Reviewed
Research says about…
TEACHERS’ SENSE OF EFFICACY
“Teacher-centered instructors with low efficacy fail to adjust
to the individual needs of students, a concept at the heart of
DDDM.”
“Thus, teachers in this study who were more confident in
their ability to successfully engage in DDDM were more likely
to be working with colleagues to improve and increase use of
DDDM in their classrooms. ”
Dunn, K. E., Airola, D. T., Lo, W., & Garrison, M. (2013). Becoming Data Driven: The Influence of
Teachers' Sense of Efficacy on Concerns Related to Data-Driven Decision Making. Journal Of
Experimental Education, 81(2), 222-241.
13. What the Peer-Reviewed
Research says about…
EFFECTIVE DATA USE
“First, we use a broad and encompassing definition of data,
meaning anything that helps educators know more about
their students.”
“Second, data use means the actions in which educators
engage as they collect these data, organize, and analyze data,
and draw meaning from them to inform practice. ”
Wayman, J. C., Cho, V., Jimerson, J., & Spikes, D. D. (2012). DistrictWide Effects on Data Use in the
Classroom. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 20(25),
14. What the Peer-Reviewed
Research says about…
EFFECTIVE DATA USE
“Third, we often use the term effective data use to distinguish
between data use practices that benefit educators in their
practice (and which thus benefits student learning) from
other data use practices that have been to shown to actually
hinder educational work.”
Wayman, J. C., Cho, V., Jimerson, J., & Spikes, D. D. (2012). DistrictWide Effects on Data Use in the
Classroom. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 20(25),
