Using Data to Inform Decisions in a Diverse, Rural High School: A Researcher-Practitioner Partnership

The reported study provides a model research-practitioner partnership that resulted in improved data literacy and data use by school personnel. This study is the first to examine the relationship between student performance on Michigan’s grade 8 state test (the MEAP) and the SAT. The findings corroborated those from others studies that grade 8 standardized test scores can serve as early warning indicators and provide information to school personnel to use to improve programming and better prepare students for high school and college coursework. Results of this study informed the school leaders’ decisions to pay closer attention to the transition between middle and high school and implement tiered interventions for students at risk of failing to meet college readiness tests benchmarks.