How to Make Data Work

by Jenny Grant Rankin

Educators are increasingly responsible for using data to improve teaching and learning in their schools. This helpful guide provides leaders with simple steps for facilitating accurate analysis and interpretation of data, while avoiding common errors and pitfalls. How to Make Data Work provides clear strategies for getting data into workable shape and creating an environment that supports understanding, analysis, and successful use of data, no matter what data system or educational technology tools are in place in your district. This accessible resource makes data easy to understand and use so that educators can better evaluate and maximize their systems to help their staff, students, and school succeed. With this tried-and-true guidance, you’ll be prepared to advocate for tools that adhere to data reporting standards, avoid misinterpretation of data, and improve the data use climate in your school.

226 pages, Paperback

First published February 4, 2016

About the author

Dr. Rankin is a Mensan with 2 doctorates: a PhD and LHD. She is a former Fulbright Specialist for the US Department of State who lectures (e.g., at the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Columbia University, US federal agencies, TED Talk, etc.) and delivers keynote/plenary presentations at major conferences. She has written 14 nonfiction books, and she writes an online column for Psychology Today. Dr. Rankin was honored by the US White House and is regularly featured in the media. Dr. Rankin merges exuberance with research-based strategies to make any information (even complex, dry, undesirable, or controversial data) accessible, engaging, actionable, and persuasive to audiences …and she teaches others this psychology-based communication superpower. Visit https://jennyrankin.com/bio for her full bio.

Reviews

[Lane D.]

I've read many books on education data, but this is the first I've read that gets at the real problems facing school and district staff when it comes to data use, and then gives us clear answers for those problems. The author offers realistic, research-based solutions that are easy to read and apply (she has even pre-written emails that busy readers can go online to copy/paste, in order to save readers' time). This book is the answer we've all been waiting for to transform data use in education so that data is actually easy to use and can support us in giving students the best support possible.