Syllabus

Instructor Sara Dexter, Assistant Professor Department of Leadership, Foundations, and Policy, Curry School of Education, UVA. Office Hours: By appointment. Phone/ Voice mail:434-924-7131

Course Description and Objectives

Data-driven Decision Making:This class will present an overview of the core concepts related to data-driven decision making at the school and classroom level and examine how educational technology can support it; central to this will be the related technology leadership issues.

This course will help participants

  1. Explain what data-driven decision making is and how that relates to instructional leadership and technology leadership, and the conditions necessary for D3m to take place.
  2. Compare formative and summative assessment processes and tools and how they contribute to the assessment-centeredness of a learning environment.
  3. Identify and evaluate the systems and tools in place at a school and/or in a division for data-driven decision making.
  4. Create materials that explain the formative and summative assessment systems in place in a school or division, including a concrete example of their application, and support others in their usage.

Required Books

All assigned readings will be on the web.

Assignments

182 points possible: A’s range begins at 90%; B’s range begins at 80%; C’s range begins at 70%; D’s range begins at 60%

Weekly Participation (4 @ 20 pts)

This includes writing up summaries or reactions and participating in online discussions and/or group activities.

Application Papers (3 @ 18 pts each)

Each of these three papers will follow a similar format where you take ideas presented in the reading(s) for the week and synthesize them to create a tool you could use to support colleagues in using technology to support data-driven decision making.

ETIPS (2 Online Cases @8 pts each)

These online case exercises will provide us a common setting for applying principles of data-driven decision making, and analyze the impact of the context on how it plays out. These ETIPS assignments require a short answer response to a case question.

Integration Paper (40 points)

In this document you will integrate your three application papers into a useable tool with which you could support educators' data-driven decision making. This will include crafting elements that unite the materials in the three papers into a framework; revising elements within the three application papers based on feedback from users and the instructor; and adding a commentary section to the instructor that sums up what you see are the necessary policies, programs, and/or funding opportunities for which you’ll need to advocate in order to advocate for how technology can support data-driven decision making.

Specific requirements and a rubric for each assignment will be provided on assignment and task pages. All assignments are to be written with clarity and edited carefully for spelling and grammatical errors. They should have logical internal structure. Microsoft Word documents are preferred (.doc) or RTF (.rtf) documents. Use APA format for citing and listing references. Suggested writing and citation style resources: - American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author & see electronic reference formats recommended by the APA http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html - Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (1979). Elements of style. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

School and University Policies

Assistance for Disability in Learning:

UVA’s guide about accommodations that various University of Virginia departments provide to individuals with disabilities can be found at http://www.virginia.edu/vpsa/ada-std.html See also http://trc.virginia.edu/Resources/Academic_Support.htm

Honor Policy:

The honor code applies to all work submitted for this course. The honor code states: On my honor as a student, I have neither given nor received aid on this assignment.” The issue of “aid” sometimes becomes unclear when doing research. According to the University, plagiarism is presenting another person’s work as your own. Examples of plagiarism include copying another person’s paper, restating ideas from a book or article without citing the article as a source, or copying more than seven words from a book or article without quotation marks and a citation of the source of the quotation.

Religious Holidays:

UVA’s policy on religious holidays states “When a religious holiday falls during scheduled class time, faculty are expected not to place a student in jeopardy for observing a religious custom. For example, quizzes affecting the grading of a student's performance should be rescheduled or alternative times be offered.” Please let me know if a religious holiday you observe conflicts with class requirements.

Cellular Phones :

Cell phones should not be used or even turned on during class unless there is an emergency situation that warrants it.