ABSTRACT
Schools and districts promoting data-driven decision-making often have one thing in common: dedicated collaboration time for teachers. The teacher team is seen as a key unit in which data will be shared, analyzed, and used to inform instruction, yet we have little knowledge about the collaborative processes of teams that use data effectively. Drawing on an in-depth, two-year qualitative case study of a teacher team at one school, this chapter addresses the question: How does data use play a role in the joint work of a highly collaborative teacher team? The authors analyze the nature of the collegial relationships among teachers, highlighting the ways in which teachers’ collaborative activities involved data-informed instruction and identifying the contextual features that supported this work. The case focused on in this chapter is an exemplar, allowing the authors to highlight promising practices. Five promising practices emerged from this investigation: 1) teachers’ joint examination of data on all students, 2) valuing teacher expertise and judgement, 3) the implementation and use of vertical and horizontal collaboration structures, 4) collective action in instructional planning, informed by data, and 5) deliberation on varied beliefs and practices, and the use of data. The chapter closes with implications.
