How Administrators Can Use Data to Explore Issues of Equity

School administrators are accustomed to using data to inform instruction. We study statistical tools in graduate school courses, analyze both standardized test scores and locally developed formative and summative assessment results, and take data-generated information into account when making decisions affecting student placement, curriculum design, lesson planning, and instructional strategies.

Tests are an invaluable lens, but they’re not the only data sets available. A vast array of alternative data is readily accessible or easily generated. This data has the potential to offer a broader perspective and a deeper understanding of problems that administrators grapple with.

Let’s suppose a school is interested in exploring equity issues. Achievement tests provide worthwhile evidence, but they offer a narrow view, and, as educational literature often reports, testing carries biases in content, language, and outcomes. Nor do academic assessments reveal a complete picture of equity and inclusion: whether children equally feel like they belong, or equally access school counseling services, advanced-level high school courses, or teacher help after class; whether teachers equally call on students; whether extracurricular clubs, sports, and other events are designed to appeal to the diversity of student interests.

Administrators can use novel forms of data to measure current conditions and future needs. The process is akin to taking off one set of glasses and donning another lens, trying on readers instead of sunglasses to afford an alternative view of the world. We’ll consider a school’s investigation into equity practices as a consistent example.

How to Uncover New Data

1. What is at your fingertips? The Census Bureau website, searchable by zip code, offers a portrait of a school community’s demographics (age, household income, race and ethnicity, education level, etc.) and economic characteristics (e.g., employment status, industries, occupations) in extraordinary detail. The information enables school staff to more fully appreciate the environment in which students live. We’ve incorporated this data, for example, in teacher onboarding programs, enabling new teachers to better understand their students, their students’ home life, and the wider community.

A trove of data takes moments to access.

1. Start with this link: https://data.census.gov/.
2. Insert the local zip code or the subject of interest and the zip code—for example, “Poverty in zip code 10801.”
3. Even more information is available by clicking tabs near the top of the screen (tables, maps, and charts).

2. How can you dig deeper? The first step in digging deeper is to pose meaningful questions, trying to understand patterns or theories of action that might be at play. Exploring trends in data or testing for possible correlations often unveils interesting phenomena and points the way to school improvement.

For example, consider a principal who seeks to understand the correlation between disciplinary infractions, consequences, and equity statistics. Digging deeper, the principal starts to classify infractions into categories such as “victimless” (cursing, refusal to work) or by location (hallway versus cafeteria versus classroom). Searching for correlations, the principal probes whether there is a correspondence between discipline incidents and student profiles (e.g., race, ethnicity, or academic performance). Findings might prompt changes in school practices, such as adopting a restorative approach to behavior infractions.

 In one diverse middle school, administrators were curious about whether students earning high scores on mathematics achievement tests were recommended for accelerated mathematics courses irrespective of their socioeconomic status. The data—state achievement test results and math placement recommendations—required only a few hours to collect and unearthed a concerning inequitable pattern: For students from low-income families, achievement test results were an unreliable predictor of placement in a higher-level math course.

This discovery prompted a new equity-related inquiry: Why was there a mismatch between achievement test scores and teacher recommendations? You know you’re digging deeper when your curiosities lead to even more probing questions.     

3. Conducting action research. While action research investigations may not meet the strict standards of scientific research, this exercise in inquiry holds promise for school administrators seeking to improve school programs or their own practices. Applying action research methodology, leaders gain insight and experiment with innovative strategies. Questions in such investigations are immediate and practical. A study might involve collaboration of a leadership team, grade, or department, or it might be the work of a single principal wondering why something occurs and what can be done.

The approach is especially germane to equity issues. Schools can drill down and take a granular perspective, looking at formative classroom assessments, samples of student work, etc., rather than the broad brush of standardized tests. Action research readily incorporates participant views, capturing the lived experiences of stakeholders.

Action research consists of four steps:

1. Start with an authentic need to know. Action research projects are hyperlocal, putting school phenomena under a microscope, testing commonly held beliefs, and piloting model programs. As a case study, consider a high school principal wondering how the school might improve the rate of college access for potential first-generation college students.
2. Focus on the research question. Start with the “theory of action,” a hypothesis as to why a problem exists and how it might be solved. In our example, the principal begins with the supposition that a lack of family involvement is problematic: Parents don’t understand the pivotal role they play supporting their children in the college search, application, and decision-making process.
3. Take time to plan. True to the field-based approach to action research, the principal begins identifying a few promising future college students and convenes a pilot parent focus group, led by a teacher and social worker. After developing a curriculum, they meet regularly during sophomore, junior, and senior years.
4. Make sense of data. Evaluation is the final step in the action research protocol. In our example, the college acceptance rate is calculated, and participating parents are asked to evaluate the impact of the program on their children and the effect of support they attempted at home. Notice the collection of both hard (college acceptance rates) and soft (parental perceptions) data.

A school leader plays varied roles in the school community: educator, coach, supervisor, therapist, and visionary. Add to an exhaustive (and exhausting!) list the consequential job of data detective: launching investigations, searching for clues in the data to uncover what’s really happening. It’s a learning cycle: from questions to data exploration, from data exploration to discoveries, from discoveries to school improvement, to yet more probing questions.