Teachers & Principals

Introduction

Longitudinal data - high-quality data about how individual students perform over time- allow teachers to adjust instruction in real time with a focus on individual student learning and principals to monitor progress of the entire school and develop a schoolwide vision and action plan. Longitudinal data systems make it possible to compile an academic history for each student, often including but not limited to such indicators as the courses a student has taken, grades, assessment results and enrollment informa¬tion. Rather than relying on student achievement results at a single moment in time, longitudinal data follow students and trends over time, which enables more robust analyses.

The Suggested Reading List to the right provides several resources that are particularly relevant to policymakers and their role building, using, and sustaining longitudinal data systems. Other suggested ways of navigating the library include:

• Select your state in the Browse by State tool to view resources pertaining to your state specifically.
• As you come across topics that you are interested in learning more about, search by keywords in Search Resources or by topic in Browse by Topic to get a better national picture.
• If you know your state is working hard to develop the ten essential elements and you’re struggling with particular elements, use the Browse by 10 Essential Elements to find resources targeted at specific elements.