Interpreting and Using School Performance Data: Do's and Don'ts for 2022 and Beyond

The accountability provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act are back in effect after 2 years of pandemic-related disruptions. States need to know that they are using their data appropriately to identify schools for targeted or comprehensive support and improvement. To support learning acceleration and recovery, they also need to know what data they can trust and what inferences they can draw to best understand schools’ needs. Yet using typical measures for assessing school performance may lead them astray. As they examine school performance data and consider options for supporting schools, state and local decisionmakers should keep in mind some dos and don’ts presented here.