ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a powerful organizing principle for analyzing data: data questions. A good data question helps people make important decisions, encourages people to think broadly, guides people to the right data, and helps people find timely answers. Teachers and administrators in schools have all kinds of data available to them for decision-making. The amount of data is dizzying—educators see everything from informal data like notes from student conferences to quantitative data like the kind found in academic research papers. Sylvia, a vice principal at an elementary school, organizes time for teachers to review data about what their students are learning. A school principal might look at, among other things, formative assessments that come every quarter. Data analysis usually starts out pretty hazy. The process of building a good data question and pairing it with good data sources is usually pretty messy.
