Data Literacy Downward Trend Report

 Students’ data analysis skills have dropped, and teachers say they’re putting less emphasis on the subject, a new analysis finds—even as workforce demand for data-literate employees continues to rise. The data was derived from the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Scores in this subset of the NAEP math test dropped 10 scale score points for 8th graders and four points for 4th graders. The declines were larger for students from low-income families. The downward trend started before the pandemic, but math scores overall dropped during and since that time.

Drozda, Z. (2023). Data science is vital to student success: So why are outcomes going down? Data Science4Everyone. 

https://www.datascience4everyone.org/post/data-science-is-vital-to-student-success-so-why-are-outcomes-going-down

Social-emotional learning

Schools that prioritize emotional and social development and other soft skills over test scores enable students to perform better in school and later in life, according to a Northwestern University study of more than 150,000 Chicago high-school students. "What we're showing is that schools that actually cause kids to become more gritty, those kids tend to be likely to persist more in college," says economist and study author Kirabo Jackson. Jackson has calculated that schools that build social-emotional qualities such as the ability to resolve conflicts and the motivation to work hard  are getting even better short-term and long-term results for students than schools that only boost test scores. The schools that develop soft skills produced students with higher grades, fewer absences and fewer disciplinary problems and arrests in high school. Later, the students who attended these high schools graduated and went to college in higher rates. 

This is still a working paper, which means it has not yet been peer-reviewed and may still undergo revisions. In February 2020, Jackson presented these early findings at conference of the National Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research.

Jackson, K. (2020).  School effects on socio-emotional development, school-based arrests and educational attainment. 

https://caldercenter.org/publications/school-effects-socio-emotional-development-school-based-arrests-and-educational

Librarians and Student Success

According to one report, when schools have high-quality library programs and librarians who share their expertise with the entire school community, student achievement gets a boost. This report discusses multiple studies that emphasize the importance of librarians, and how they are associated with better student outcomes. It is stated in this report that multiple studies have found that test scores tend to be higher in schools where librarians have an active role in where administrators, teachers, and librarians themselves think of the school librarian as a school leader, co-contributor, and instructional planner to the administration and educational curriculum of the school. 

Lance, K. C., & Kachel, D. E. (2018). Why school librarians matter: What years of research tell us. Phi Delta Kappan, 99 (7), 15-20. http://www.kappanonline.org/lance-kachel-school-librarians-matter-years-research/

States Keep Track of Student Success

According to a report by the Data Quality Campaign, states can measure the factors that measure student success through examining the data to ensure that students are on track to succeed. The four core principles this report stresses are measuring what matters making data use possible, being transparent and earning trust, and guaranteeing access and protecting privacy. The report summarizes what we know about states’ efforts to act on the Four Policy Priorities; provides evidence of state efforts based on DQC’s research and research by others where relevant; builds on DQC’s 50-state survey, last administered in 2014, to paint a richer picture of state efforts by using multiple research methods including opinion research, website and policy reviews, and legislative analysis; describes state progress beyond a simple yes or no response and takes into account the guiding principles that foster quality over compliance; and provides specific recommendations along with examples and resources for individuals looking to move their state forward.

Data Quality Campaign (2017). TIME TO ACT 2017 – Put data in the hands of people. Data Quality Campaign. https://2pido73em67o3eytaq1cp8au-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/DQC-Time-to-Act-2017-07212017.pdf