Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an overview of why data are important to continuous school district improvement. It defines what data are important to have in comprehensive data analysis. The book discusses the intersections of few major categories of data in terms of different levels of analyses that can be created using these measures. It describes how to get started and how data fit into a continuous improvement planning model. The book presents an example district analysis of approximately 8,000 students, and shows how the model assists in understanding what the district is doing that is working or not working for its students. It focuses on the example district’s demographic data to answer the question, who are people? and to establish the context of the district. The book discusses and shows gap analyses, answering the question, what are the gaps.