Skip to main content

Research on Data Use: A Framework and Analysis

Item

Title

Research on Data Use: A Framework and Analysis

Abstract/Description

One of the central lessons from research on data use in schools and school districts is that assessments, student tests, and other forms of data are only as good as how they are used. But what influences how they are used? This relatively straightforward question turns out to be fairly complex to answer. Data use implicates a number of processes, conditions, and contexts. It involves interpretive processes, as using data requires that the user interpret the data and construct implications for next steps. It implicates social and organizational conditions, since the data use unfolds in the context of a multileveled organizational system. And, because data can be a source of power, particularly in the current accountability environment, data use also involves power relations. In this article, we put forward a framework for understanding the phenomenon of data use in the context of data use interventions. We draw on existing research and theory to identify key dimensions of data use that we should attend to and offer a way to understand how these dimensions might interact. In so doing, we provide guidance for studying the pathways between data use interventions and various outcomes of value.

Date

Volume

9

Issue

4

Pages

173-206

Resource type

Research/Scholarly Media

Resource status/form

Published Text

Scholarship genre

Theoretical

Open access/full-text available

Yes

Peer reviewed

Yes

ISSN

1536-6367

Citation

Coburn, C. E., & Turner, E. O. (2011). Research on Data Use: A Framework and Analysis. Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives, 9(4), 173–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/15366367.2011.626729

Comments

No comment yet! Be the first to add one!

Contribute

Login or click your token link to edit this record.

Export