"Having a database with information is helpful in focusing attention on where and when the problem is occurring," Green points out. "For example, after reviewing the data from the elementary schools, we found that many infractions were happening during recess. This enabled us to target that setting for intervention."

Statewide Positive Behavioral Support Initiative Features Data-based Decision Making

Hawaii has launched a statewide initiative to prepare all schools to use Sugai's positive behavioral support model. According to Jean Nakasato, educational specialist in the Hawaii Department of Education, a major element of the positive behavioral support system is data-based decision making.

"Our goal is for everyone to be data smart, to be able to analyze and interpret behavioral data," Nakasato tells us. "We need to know if we are meeting student needs and data help us do this."

To this end, the use of data is built into the training process. School-based teams bring data (e.g., about office referrals) to the state-sponsored training sessions where they learn how to use it. In teams, participants use the data to self-assess and problem solve. The process results in action plans that participants are expected to implement in their schools.

TEACHING STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES TO USE DATA FOR DECISION MAKING

"There's a saying, "In God we trust, from all else we expect data,'" asserts Tanis Bryan, researcher at the Southwest Institute for Families and Children.

To this end, Bryan and her colleagues with OSEP support developed and successfully field-tested Amazing Discoveries. In the Amazing Discoveries curriculum, students with and without disabilities in Grades 5 through 12 learn how to conduct scientific research about a topic of high interest to them-themselves! Data collection, analysis, and presentation are integral elements of the curriculum.

"Using the Amazing Discoveries approach, we have engaged youth in using data to achieve personal goals that they set for themselves," Bryan explains. "We found that once youth catch on, they quickly find other ways of using data for making decisions about even more important goals."

For more information on the Amazing Discoveries curriculum, visit the publisher's web site at www.exinn.net or contact Bryan at TanisHBr@aol.com.

USING LARGE-SCALE ASSESSMENT DATA FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

"The benefits of having students with disabilities participate in state and districtwide assessments will never be fully achieved if educators do not actually look at, explore, and use the data for making decisions about educational programs," says Martha Thurlow, director of the OSEP-funded National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). "Those schools, districts, and states making the most progress are going to be the ones that thoroughly and carefully use their assessment results."

Since 1998, Thurlow and her colleagues have been studying how states and localities are implementing the IDEA requirement that students with disabilities participate in state- and districtwide assessments, with accommodations as necessary. Of particular interest is the IDEA provision requiring the public reporting of scores of students with disabilities with the same frequency as for other students.

TECHNOLOGY STREAMLINES DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

The latest Technology in Action issue from the Technology and Media (TAM) Division of the Council for Exceptional Children focuses on how technology can be used to manage data for schoolwide and individual student behaviors. Solving Behavior Problems: Technology Can Help! outlines suggestions for using data to determine communicative function, identifying a pattern of behavior, and analyzing and displaying group data. The issue is available on the TAM web site at www.tamcec.org.

"Reporting the scores of students with disabilities is one element of a truly inclusive accountability system" Thurlow says. "Once scores are reported, they should be used to make programmatic and instructional decisions." To understand and use state and/or district assessment data, Thurlow suggests that educators first reflect on why it is important to look at data and how knowing such information may prove relevant for evaluating whether decision making is producing the expected results. From here, educators can decide where they might want to start their efforts and how far into the data they want to dig. According to Thurlow, this step involves knowing the data elements that are used to generate district or state reports."

A thorough understanding of the information provided also enables us get more out of the data that are given," Thurlow adds. "It allows us to explore trends in performance, for example, changes in test scores across grades within a given year, changes in the scores of students within specific grades across years, and performance of the same students as they progress across grades. It also is important to keep track of mobility in and out of special education, and to look at data in varied ways," Thurlow says. "This is especially true when trying to reach conclusions about improvements in the performance of students with disabilities."

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