ABSTRACT
The integration of data into the school culture is not a new idea. It has been talked about for years and continues to be a recurring topic at conferences, in educational literature, and throughout the educational community. Now, more than ever before, student performance data are being incorporated into an educator's evaluation to determine the effectiveness of that teacher's instructional practices. Did the students in that teacher's classroom learn? How do we know, and how can we measure it? These questions bombard educators in today's world of educational accountability. Teachers have certainly talked about the use of data to inform instruction before, but not to this degree. Today, educator accountability is at the center of school improvement. The performance of students in a classroom is reflected in the teacher's performance evaluation. In some states, up to 50 percent of an educator's evaluation is based on student performance data.
