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Databusting for Schools

How to Use and Interpret Education Data

By: Richard Selfridge

Data in education is increasingly important but, despite their best efforts, teachers and educators frequently struggle to understand the core principles of data use and interpretation. This book will help you understand the use of statistics in education, and show you how to use data effectively in your classroom and school. As a guide to data, the book explores variables and how they are manipulated. It explains both descriptive statistics, which aim to explain the past, and inferential statistics which try to make predictions about the future and the wider population. It also explores how data has been used in the world of educational research, and examines criticisms of using data to summarize children’s education.

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781473963504
Published By: Sage UK
Year: 2018
Page Count: 272
Publication date: August 09, 2018

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Description

'In the increasingly data-swamped world of education, data literacy is no longer a desirable skill, it is essential. Databusting for Schools is part guide through the complexities, uses and limitations of data; and part challenge to those who too readily make assumptions and draw conclusions. This is an important book.'
James Pembroke, independent data analyst

Data rules schools and ignorance is far from bliss. From assessment results to questioning educational claims, there is a growing need to understand the numbers used in education. Education data blogger and teacher Richard Selfridge (aka Jack Marwood) unravels the complexities of dealing with educational data and explains statistics in an understandable, everyday way, relevant to your classroom and your school.

He will take you through all you need to know about data and statistics in education including:

· Where does education data come from?

· The what, why and how of numbers.

· Understanding different types of graphs and how to use them.

· How to play around with data to see the bigger picture.

· How to interpret data, does one thing really lead to another?

· Using data to inform school policy.

A must-read for all teachers, school leaders, data managers, school governors, and anyone in education who has ever looked at statistical data and broken out into a cold sweat.

Richard Selfridge is a primary school teacher and writer on education. He is author of the popular datablog Icing on the Cake and tweets under the sometime pseudonym @Jack_Marwood.

Author(s)

Richard Selfridge

Richard Selfridge is a primary school teacher, data consultant and writer on education. His 2018 book for Sage Publications, Databusting for Schools, is an essential guide to the use and interpretation of education data. As well as teaching, working with schools on their use of education data and writing about education, Richard works as a consultant for the Driver Youth Trust supporting inclusion for literacy. A passionate advocate of sensible use of data in schools, Richard was part of ASCL’s primary assessment expert panel alongside James, which indirectly lead to James and Richard working together as the Databusters, running workshops across the country and co-hosting the Databusters podcast. In his spare time, Richard can be found hunting follies, usually by bike, or playing, listening to, watching, talking, or thinking about music. He lives in Leeds with his wife Lindsay and daughters Martha and Connie.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Databusting for Schools - an introduction to using and interpreting education data

Chapter 2: Gathering education data – Where does it come from?

Chapter 3: Understanding numerical data in education – the what, how and why of numbers

Chapter 4: Understanding variables – the what and how of information

Chapter 5: Descriptive statistics – Where are we now?

Chapter 6: Inferential statistics – What does the bigger picture look like?

Chapter 7: Correlational statistics – Does one thing really lead to another?

Chapter 8: Critically appraising statistics – Using what you have learnt

Chapter 9: Data-based school research and policy – using data to understand and change education

Chapter 10: The data debate – the ongoing discussion about numbers in education

Reviews

In the increasingly data-swamped world of education, data literacy is no longer a desirable skill, it is essential. Databusting for Schools is part guide through the complexities, uses and limitations of data; and part challenge to those who too readily make assumptions and draw conclusions. This is an important book.

James Pembroke
Independent data analyst

The use and interpretation of data is increasingly becoming vital in understanding and publicising school results. Whatever our feelings about it might be, all teachers, not just senior leaders, need to get a firm grasp on the subject and this book will help in that...There is a lot of emphasis on practical issues, helping the reader to see how data can be applied - and where things can go wrong. It could be a dry read, but the author makes the subject interesting and relevant. This is a must-read for all teachers, school leaders, data managers and school governors...

Sarah Brew
Parents in Touch

Other Titles in: Administration & Leadership | Educational Research | Student Assessment

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Related Resources

Access to companion resources is available with the purchase of this book.