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This unique collation of material on data-driven decisions made in schools includes contributions from several countries to provide an informed perspective on effective policy and practice, and includes analysis of the interplay between the two.

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In a context where schools are held more and more accountable for the education they provide, data-based decision making has become increasingly important. This book brings together scholars from several countries to examine data-based decision making. Data-based decision making in this book refers to making decisions based on a broad range of evidence, such as scores on students´ assessments, classroom observations etc.

This book supports policy-makers, people working with schools, researchers and school leaders and teachers in the use of data, by bringing together the current research conducted on data use across multiple countries into a single volume. Some of these studies are ´best practice´ studies, where effective data use has led to improvements in student learning. Others provide insight into challenges in both policy and practice environments. Each of them draws on research and literature in the field.

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1. Introduction.- 2. Data-based Decision Making: an overview.- 3. Analysis and Discussion of Classroom and Achievement Data to Raise Student Achievement.- 4. From "Intuition"- to "Data"-Driven Decision Making in Dutch Secondary Schools?.- 5. Professional Attitudes to the Use of Data in England.- 6. Approaches to Effective Data Use: Does One Size Fit All?.- 7. Improving Data Literacy in Schools: Lessons from the School Feedback Project.- 8. Implementation of a Data Initiative in the NCLB era.- 9. Towards Data-informed Decisions: from ministry policy to school practice.- 10. Conclusions and a Data Use Framework.- 11. Data Use: Where to from here?.- Index.

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