In this article, we highlight key insights on building a strong data culture drawn from previously published research. We next share preliminary findings from a recent interview study that examines the data practice of Catholic school leaders. We close with important characteristics of Catholic schools that can serve as the foundation for this increasingly important work.
Data-informed leadership promotes a cycle of inquiry in which leaders engage teachers in “problems of practice” which they explore together through data, resulting in a course of action based on evidence and shared analysis (Knapp et al., 2006). Within this strong, positive data culture, teachers and leaders use data fluently and fluidly to inform their daily work of teaching and learning and to drive broader improvement efforts. School leaders play a particularly critical role in developing and sustaining healthy data cultures as they tend to determine data sources and access, establish routines, allocate time for data use and set expectations and norms for data practice (Coburn & Turner, 2011; Datnow & Park, 2014).
Given strong evidence that leaders matter for data culture, scholars have sought to clarify how leaders most effectively foster and sustain “a culture that supports inquiry” and promotes both trust and collective learning (Knapp et al., 2006, p. 15). Through an in-depth review of research, Gerzon (2015) identified five ways that school leaders foster strong data cultures to support data-informed leadership. School leaders with strong data-use cultures have been found to:
Gerzon’s framework provides general recommendations to assist school leaders; however, it refrains from providing overly prescriptive advice so that schools can apply the framework flexibly to their individual school context. The key takeaway is that building a school’s data culture involves a common set of activities that can be enacted in a multitude of ways. However, leaders must seek to involve all members of the school’s faculty to truly embed a culture of data use in the school. Importantly, data-informed leaders must anchor all data activities in the shared values of the school community (Knapp et al., 2006), often in the form of a mission statement that guides educators’ actions (James-Ward et al., 2013).
In a recent national interview study with K-8 Catholic school principals (n=23), all interviewed principals indicated they value data use and are engaging in some level of data work with their teachers. Our preliminary findings suggest that these leaders are working to ensure teachers have access to student academic data through interim standardized tests, such as NWEA MAP Growth and Renaissance Star, that complement teachers’ classroom observations and assessments. The majority of principals we talked to, however, while engaged in many of the actions reported by Gerzon (2015), were shouldering the burden of analyzing student and classroom data in one-on-one conversations with individual teachers.
We applaud these principals for their efforts in demonstrating the importance of data use and taking the time to talk to each teacher regarding trends and patterns in the data and how to consider matching instruction to the needs of individual students. However, we encourage principals to move beyond individual conversations and to engage their entire community of teachers in data conversations and activities, examining student progress together within and across grade levels and over time to provide greater cohesion in the school’s teaching and learning processes, targeting areas where improvement may be needed.
Such collaborative data use has been shown to increase teacher knowledge with positive implications for teacher practice (Cosner, 2011). When teachers examine classroom data in isolation, they are more likely to rely on anecdotal evidence or intuition in their interpretation, which can reinforce personal assessments not based on data. When teachers examine data together, they gain an outside perspective that provides an additional lens through which to view information. A different perspective can assist in motivating teachers’ actions based on data (Ingram et al., 2004).
Collaboration can happen in the form of faculty-wide data days or data walks after each test administration (Haas & Insua, 2023), the formation of small groups of teachers in ongoing professional learning communities that seek to uncover the context and possible solutions to problems of practice within the school (Gerzon, 2015), as well as other creative endeavors and structured protocols (see Venables, 2011, 2017; Wellman & Lipton, 2004) that distribute the responsibility of accessing and analyzing the data beyond the school leader.
We do not want to oversimplify this work; it requires trust, an understanding of the responsible uses of data and clear objectives aimed at improving student learning and growth (Coburn & Turner, 2011). Catholic schools, however, may have some advantages here compared to other types of schools. In Catholic schools, data initiatives are undertaken by choice, not in response to mandated regulations by external agencies. Catholic school leaders and teachers share a strong sense of mission, which some Catholic school educators view as not only the Church’s or the school’s mission but as their personal mission (Dallavis, 2018) and vocation (Hallman, 2022). Catholic schools have been found to foster a strong sense of community, with multiple layers of embeddedness between church, school and home (Bryk et al., 1993; Coleman & Hoffer, 1987) that can assist educators in addressing important questions and issues in the school. Finally, by framing data efforts as a means to help students reach their full human flourishing, treating each student as created in the image and likeness of God (Bryk et al., 1993), school leaders can inspire a moral responsibility to engage in this work together. By focusing improvement efforts on the school’s mission and mission-related outcomes and by involving small teams of educators in studying problems of practice, school leaders can use the strengths of Catholic schools as a foundation for the development of a strong data culture.
Julie Dallavis, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of the practice and associate director of program evaluation and research in the Institute for Educational Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame. She teaches in the education, schooling and society undergraduate minor and supplementary major and serves as the associate director for the Notre Dame Program in Interdisciplinary Educational Research (ND PIER).
Frankie (Mary Frances) Jones, Ph.D., is an assistant clinical professor in the Remick Leadership Program in the Institute for Educational Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame. She also serves as the faculty fellow for the Notre Dame ACE Academies and teaches in the education, schooling and society undergraduate minor and supplementary major.
Julie Dallavis, Ph.D.
Julie.Dallavis@nd.edu
Frankie Jones, Ph.D.frankiejones@nd.edu