Schools and Data : The Educator's Guide for Using Data to Improve Decision Making

by Theodore B. Creighton

• ISBN13: 9781412937337
• ISBN10: 1412937337
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-07-06
• Publisher: Corwin Pr

Summary

This reader-friendly second edition provides step-by-step procedures for using data to facilitate effective decision making and focuses on strengthening educators' problem analysis and data interpretation skills.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
About the Authors	p. xix
The Role of Data Analysis in the Lives of School Leaders	p. 1
What Is This Thing Called Statistics?	p. 2
What Are SPSS and Excel?	p. 3
The Rationale for Using Data to Improve Decision Making in Our Schools	p. 4
So, What's the Problem?	p. 4
The Use of Statistics in the Classroom: A Case Study	p. 5
Application Activities	p. 7
Getting Started	p. 8
What Is Data-Driven Decision Making?	p. 11
Introduction to Excel and SPSS	p. 11
Let's Try an Example	p. 14
Conclusion	p. 16
Application Activity	p. 17
About the NCLB Activities	p. 17
Collecting and Organizing Data	p. 19
Why SPSS and Microsoft Excel?	p. 19
OK, Let's Give It a Go!	p. 20
Frequency Distribution	p. 21
Cross-Tabulation	p. 23
Measures of Central Tendency	p. 23
Measures of Variability	p. 27
Conclusion	p. 29
Application Activities	p. 30
NCLB Activity	p. 31
Correlation: My GRE Score Is Not Good Enough for Harvard!	p. 32
Why Would Educators Be Interested in Correlations?	p. 38
A School Music Program: A Case Study	p. 39
Other Data-Driven Decision Making	p. 45
Conclusion	p. 46
Application Activities	p. 49
NCLB Activity	p. 49
Introduction to Regression	p. 50
Simple Regression	p. 52
Conclusion	p. 61
Application Activity	p. 62
NCLB Activity	p. 63
Formulating Research Questions and the Comparison of Means	p. 64
Hypothesis Testing and Formulating Research Questions	p. 65
Z Scores	p. 68
The t Statistic	p. 75
One-Sample t Test: An Example	p. 77
Conclusion	p. 79
Application Activity	p. 80
NCLB Activity	p. 80
The Independent-Samples t Test	p. 81
A Try at Conceptual Understanding	p. 81
Using SPSS and Excel for Testing Independent Samples	p. 93
OK, Your Turn Now	p. 96
Conclusion	p. 98
Application Activity	p. 100
NCLB Activity	p. 101
Analysis of Variance: The Difference Between Two or More Sample Means	p. 102
Advantages of ANOVA Over t Tests	p. 103
Using the Analysis of Variance	p. 104
Post Hoc Tests	p. 111
Conclusion	p. 113
Application Activity	p. 113
NCLB Activity	p. 114
Analysis of Variance: Repeated Measures	p. 115
Let's Get Right to an Example	p. 115
One More Question: Where Does the Difference Lie?	p. 122
Conclusion	p. 124
Application Activity	p. 125
NCLB Activity	p. 126
Two-Way Analysis of Variance: Two Independent Variables	p. 127
Working With Two Independent Variables	p. 127
Conclusion	p. 134
Application Activity	p. 135
NCLB Activity	p. 135
What If No Mean Scores? The Chi-Square Test for Goodness of Fit	p. 137
The Chi-Square Formula	p. 139
OK, Let's Practice With a Real-Life Example	p. 141
You're Still With Me? Let's Get Back to the Cafeteria	p. 142
Oops! Let's Check Power and Effect Size	p. 144
Communication of Statistics	p. 145
Conclusion	p. 146
Application Activity	p. 147
NCLB Activity	p. 147
The Other "Q"	p. 148
Getting at the Definition of Qualitative	p. 149
OK, but How About a Real-Life Example?	p. 149
Conclusion	p. 152
Application Activity	p. 153
NCLB Activity	p. 153
Putting It All Together: An Evidence-Based Practice Field	p. 155
Why the Change to Evidence-Based Decision Making?	p. 156
Practice and Performance Fields	p. 157
An Evidence-Based Practice Field	p. 159
Conclusion	p. 176
Music Correlation	p. 179
The t Distribution Table	p. 180
The F Distribution Table	p. 182
The Chi-Square Distribution Table	p. 184
Horizon High School Data	p. 186
References	p. 191
Index	p. 193
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