A Qualitative Study of Data Utilization in Special Education

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. September 2020. Major: Educational Policy and Administration. Advisor: Nicola Alexander. 1 computer file (PDF); ix, 155 pages.For the last two decades, schools have increasingly been required to administer and report standardized accountability data to prove they are successfully educating students. Previous research has found that educational leaders report using this standardized data more often than any other type of data. This is problematic for students who require special education services to access their education as they have needs that may not be met during a standardized testing administration and can impact their ability to demonstrate their learning. Leaders responsible for making decisions for students with disabilities need to know how to use data from a variety of sources in order to obtain a complete understanding of student progress. The purpose of this study is to learn more about how leaders use data to support students receiving special education services. Nineteen principals and other administrators identified as making decisions for students in special education from five traditional public and five charter schools in the Twin Cities area were interviewed in order to gain an understanding of how leaders use data to support students in special education. In addition to semi-structured interviews, annual reports from each participating school were analyzed. Four themes emerged from the resulting data: (1) leaders use big-picture or detail-oriented data depending on their role; (2) educational setting matters; (3) leaders have similar expectations for all students; and (4) data use is collaborative. Results support previous findings that leaders use academic data as the most common type of data used by leaders. Findings also suggest that school setting may play a role in the likelihood that leaders use different types of data to support students in special education and that leaders often use data in collaboration with others when making decisions about programming for students