Diving into data: Developing the capacity for data literacy in teacher education

Educators by definition are now required to utilize a variety of student data to shape the decisions they make and design the lessons they teach. As accountability standards become more stringent and as teachers face increasingly diverse student populations within their classrooms, they often struggle to adequately meet the needs of all learners. Using student data, rationales for instructional decisions become grounded in best practices. Unfortunately, some administrators and teachers lack the confidence and/or training needed to successfully engage with and interpret data results. This may be especially true for early career educators and those just entering the field. Indeed, for novice teachers to be successful in the current accountability culture, they must possess, understand, and effectively utilize data literacy skills, something quite difficult to accomplish without adequate training. The research in this article explored how pre-service educators determined what worked in a data literacy intervention and the potential impact this had on their instructional decision-making process. Implications for instructor professional development are offered for consideration