Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book defines what data are important to have in comprehensive data analysis. It discusses the intersections of four major data measures in terms of different levels of analyses that can be created using these measures. The book describes how to get started and how data fit into a continuous school improvement planning model. It presents an example school analysis using this continuous school improvement planning model, and shows how the model assists in understanding what the school is doing that is working or not working for its students. The book discusses and shows gap and root cause analyses, answering the questions, what are the gaps? and what are the root causes of the gaps. It provides implications for the example school’s continuous school improvement plan. The book also provides a brief summary and discussion of the example school’s results.