Developing Positive Data Cultures in High-Stakes Environments: The Role of School Leaders

Abstract

Data use is considered a key lever in school improvement processes, but the punitive pressure of high-stakes accountability can influence whether or not data use is enacted in ways which facilitate improvement. School leaders must learn to respond to high-stakes accountability in ways which lead teachers to feel safe, efficacious, and agentic with data use, and they must orient teachers to recognize data use as a mechanism for improvement. The following case describes how two leaders at Milo School District uniquely responded to high-stakes accountability and ultimately influenced the type of data culture created within their schools.