Linking Data and Learning: The Grow Network Study

During the last decade, standards, assessments, and accountability have emerged as three prongs of a national education reform movement that has asked district and school administrators to think very differently about educational decision making and the use of data. However, research about data-driven decision making is limited, especially concerning teachers. This article describes findings from a 2-year exploratory study that examined how educators within the New York City public school system are using data-made available to teachers through the print-and-Web-based reporting systems of the Grow Network-to inform decisions about teaching and learning. In this article, we summarize what we learned about the specific ways in which teachers and administrators make use of the Grow Reports (R) to inform educational practices.