Center for Technology in Education

Faced with the demands for greater accountability and higher student achievement, educators are motivated and expected to engage in far-reaching thinking about the power of data to inform and improve instructional decision-making. The national focus on data has been triggered by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, legislation that is intended to increase student achievement across all socioeconomic boundaries and improve results at challenged schools. However, ongoing advances in technology and the increased demand for individualizing student learning has led many educators to discover that the usefulness of data goes far beyond school-level accountability reporting requirements.

CTE’s Laureate Online Learning Research Initiative is designed to help educators become more effective at collecting and utilizing data and to evaluate the delivery system that is used within the initiative. The project examines the effects of: (1) using an online team-based learning approach and (2) using a non-facilitated, self-guided approach to prepare teachers to conduct data-driven action research. Both approaches use the PD Quest instructional framework with an embedded electronic procedural facilitator (EPF) and an evidence-based interventions tool. Participants acquire knowledge and skills in data-driven action research and complete formative and summative assessments during which they demonstrate their understanding of how to develop a comprehensive, data-driven action research plan.