Data can tell a vital story about K–12 challenges and how to solve them. All teachers, principals, and district leaders can use data effectively to set goals, measure changes, discover patterns, and track outcomes — if they fortify their data literacy skills.
Our K–12 Data Literacy Checklist provides a framework you can use right away to draw meaningful insights from any data you encounter in your school or district.
Download the Data Literacy Checklist infographic to:
- Learn how data literacy helps you make better decisions
- Implement a six-step protocol to collect and evaluate data systematically
- Access fillable worksheets to organize your data planning process
“Data literacy — the ability to effectively access, interpret, use, and share data — is a critical skill for K–12 educators. Whether at the classroom, school, or district level, making solid decisions requires going beyond perceptions and relying on evidence and facts.”
Using K-12 Data Is Part of Every Educator’s Job
Data can be found everywhere in school districts: student records, test scores, learning management systems, budget spreadsheets, survey results, teachers’ gradebooks. Knowing how to collect and use that data is critical for assessing program quality, setting goals, and tracking metrics. Yet most teacher preparation or educational leadership programs don’t teach data literacy skills.
This means K–12 districts don’t always have resources to interpret and act on that data in an ongoing, systematic way. However, a continuous improvement mindset and a few key data literacy tools can help educators and leaders learn how to use data to make more informed decisions that maximize student learning and success.
