Using Student-Assessment Results to Improve Instruction: Lessons From a Workshop

The student-assessment results that schools must report to satisfy No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements could be useful in pinpointing strengths and weaknesses in instructional programs and students' skills. However, many school staffs lack the expertise to learn from assessment results. We describe lessons learned from a yearlong workshop aimed at helping 10 schools with this crucial work. Attended by school-based teams consisting of teachers, administrators, and graduate students in education, the workshop (a) explored different types of data and data analyses and (b) helped teams use data to analyze a school-specific problem and create an action plan. Lessons we learned include: schools need (a) a process for engaging in conversations around teaching and learning, (b) an opportunity for support of analyses of data from their school, and (c) leadership committed to the endeavor. Many participating school teams learned lessons from student-assessment results with important implications for instructional improvement.