The online Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Educational Leadership – Professional Track program from Southeastern Oklahoma State University focuses on applying and understanding data to inform a leader’s vision for school improvement. The programmatic emphasis on data-based school improvement is key to preparing aspiring principals to continuously enhance educators’ positive impact on student learning at their schools.
Schools across the country are increasingly investing in data collection and analysis tools to drive improvement. Accurate, targeted data can shape improvement plans for school and district leadership, teachers, students and families. The well-trained school principal plays a crucial role in integrating data-driven processes. So, what does this leadership role entail, and how can the principal’s efforts be most effective?
The Role of Principals in Data-Driven School Improvement
As central members of school leadership teams, principals can benefit from leveraging data-informed decision-making. Principals make decisions that shape a school’s culture, support the staff and improve student learning outcomes. School principals trained in effective data use for school improvement can provide guidance and training to school staff and collaborate with others to advance desired outcomes in their schools.
Principals occupy a central role in shaping school improvement. Reflecting this, the national standards outlined by the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) maintain that principals are experts in leading schools, building culture, empowering people, and optimizing systems using knowledge and data.
How Do Principals Use Data to Drive Instruction and School Improvement?
Principals are central to building a data-driven school culture, empowering themselves, colleagues and the broader community to participate in leveraging data-informed insights for school improvement. This magnifies the potential advantages of using data to achieve positive outcomes for schools and students.
Data can help principals plan and execute school improvements in many ways. There are several different approaches to vision- and data-driven school leadership. Data can aid in measuring student progress, increasing program effectiveness, allocating resources and maintaining educational focus.
Using data to guide improvement of schools is a decades-old mandate. Yet data-driven school leadership relies on the necessary skills to use data strategically. Developing these skills requires advanced education and modernized professional development for all educators invested in implementing data-informed school improvement strategies.
Establishing New Best Practices for School Improvement Planning and Data-driven Leadership
Data-informed approaches to leadership must be targeted, focused, valid and reliable. If data isn’t valid and reliable, or if school leaders aren’t asking the right questions, data is significantly less helpful in shaping school improvements.
To collect the right data and ask the right questions, principals need a variety of vision-driven, data-informed leadership approaches and techniques. To foster expertise in these approaches and techniques, principals can benefit from graduate programs offering courses that focus more specifically on current methods in data analysis and application of data to facilitate school improvement.
Additionally, leaders are simply more likely to use data in ways they already understand. Therefore, principals need training and experience in multiple areas of data-informed decision-making, often beyond what is typically available within district-based professional development programs. Advanced education that covers these subjects helps principals internalize relevant knowledge, removing barriers to its use.
Gain the Data-informed Decision-Making Expertise Needed to Drive School Improvement
Southeastern’s M.Ed. in Educational Leadership – Professional Track online program offers a course focused entirely on principal leadership that allows future principals to gain experience in data-informed school improvement. This specialized course, The School Principal, utilizes the framework of a school improvement plan to train candidates in administering, developing, evaluating, implementing, communicating, and planning data-informed approaches to guide and collaboratively share their vision as they lead their schools and strive to accomplish set goals.
In-depth study in applied data-informed school improvement familiarizes students with targeted strategic planning based on focused data collection and analysis. Programs like Southeastern’s online M.Ed. in Educational Leadership – Professional Track degree offer future principals the knowledge they need to bring vision-driven, data-informed approaches to school improvement.
Learn more about the Southeastern Oklahoma State University online Master of Education in Educational Leadership – Professional Track program.