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Forum Curriculum for Improving Education Data
NCES 2007-808
May 2007

Overview

This publication is a curriculum designed to support the training by qualified instructors of K–12 school and district staff about the issues pertaining to the production of high-quality education data. It provides lesson plans, instructional handouts, and resource materials. The goal of the curriculum is to present the concepts necessary to help schools develop a culture for improving the quality of their data and to provide opportunities for participants in training sessions to practice some of the skills required for such an effort. Many of the instructional activities and resource materials are designed to enable participants to take an informed lead in the discussions and planning needed to encourage such a culture in their districts and schools.

This curriculum is based on the assumption that instructors using these materials are familiar with many, if not all, of the topics covered. The lesson plans and instructional materials are designed to assist a knowledgeable instructor in delivering effective professional development to other local education agency (LEA) staff by providing a coherent framework and specific activities for teaching. They do not constitute a textbook with which an uninformed individual can teach himself or herself the content.

Although each lesson plan describes activities in a specific order and includes handouts and resource materials referred to in the lesson, neither the organization of the lessons nor the inclusion of particular materials in each lesson should restrict instructors.

Digital versions of the lesson plans and supplementary resources are available in Appendix B and Appendix C and can be modified to best meet user needs.