Student Demographic Characteristics

Race/Ethnciity: This data identifies a student’s race/ethnicity. There can be complexities in how race and ethnicity is conceptualized. What box does a student check if that student has one parent who is African-American, and one parent who is Hispanic?

Gender: This identifies a student’s gender. Care should be taken to recognize transgender students appropriately.

Age: This identifies a student’s age. In collecting this data, you should identify students who are older or younger relative to their peers.

English Language Learner Status: This data identifies whether or not a student is an English language learner. In collecting this data, you should document the services provided to the student and the years in which the student has participated in ELL services. This is critically important because the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) now requires states to administer new state assessments designed specifically for such students.

Special Education Status: You should collect data that identifies students who have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and, thus, are receiving special education services. Participation in special education requires extensive data collection on the services provided to such students and their academic progress. You should work closely with your special education coordinator and teachers to ensure this is happening.

Section 504 Status: Students with disabilities not covered under IDEA may be covered under Section 504, which is part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that prohibits discrimination based upon disability. It is an anti-discrimination, civil rights statute that requires school personnel to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Section 504 states: “No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States, as defined in section 706(8) of this title, shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance …” [29 U.S.C. §794(a), 34 C.F.R. §104.4(a)].

Home Language: Collecting data on the home language of students can facilitate school-parent and school-community communications and partnerships.

Homeless Status: Collecting data on homeless students can assist you in accessing fiscal and other resources for such students and can help the adults in the school provide the necessary supports.

Sexual Orientation: Collecting data on student sexual orientation—in an anonymous fashion—can assist in the identification of perceptions of harassment and bullying.

International Student Status: Collecting data on international students.

Grade Level: Knowing the number of students in each grade level can assist in the allocation of resources and planning.

Grade Retention: Calculation of retention in grade can identify areas of challenge that need further investigation to ensure students’ needs are being met.

Student Behaviors

Attendance: Collecting data on who attends and how often is not only important for impacts on student learning, but also as it affects school finances.

Enrollment: Like attendance data, schools must collect this data to report to the state, which then allocates resources based on these numbers.

School Mobility: Students may move from school to school for a variety of reasons. High student mobility can affect student achievement. Research suggests that schools with higher concentrations of mobile students had higher percentages of students with disabilities and fewer students in gifted education programs, and that high mobility may nullify the positive impact of reforms like small classes and more highly qualified teachers.

Bullying: Only recently have schools been more systematic about collecting information about bullying. Not only does this affect individual students, some disproportionately more than others, but it also affects the overall climate of the school.

Violence: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Education, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention collect data from a variety of sources to gain a more complete understanding of school violence. This includes things like number of fights in a year, weapons confiscated, and teacher injury.

Teacher Demographic Characteristics

Race/Ethnicity: Just like race/ethnicity of students is important, so is the race/ethnicity of the teacher. Why might that be?

Gender: In 2011, 76% of public school teachers were female. These numbers increase for elementary schools and preschools.

Experience: Data on teacher experience is generally aggregated at the school level for state reporting purposes. However, within a school, such data can be disaggregated by grade level, subject area, and class type (remedial, regular, honors, advanced, Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, etc.). Teacher experience is typically measured in one of two ways: average teacher experience and percentage of teachers with specific ranges of experiences such as 0 years, 1–3 years, etc.

Grade Level: Administrators, at the elementary level especially, have to staff classes based on grade level, which is affected by student enrollment numbers as well as teacher certifications.

Subject Area: At the secondary level especially, knowing the areas of certification and the enrollments for different subject areas are critical for staffing. Math/science and special education continue to be areas of high need, especially in urban and rural schools.

Teacher Behaviors

Attrition: Data on how many teachers stay in a school, how many leave, and when they leave are important for the climate of the school, student learning, and teacher quality.

Discipline Referrals: Data on how often teachers refer students for discipline within the school can impact students’ access to academic content and affect their perceptions of the learning environment.

Student Perceptions

Some of the more common topics in surveys of students include the following:

• high expectations,
• climate
• relationships with teachers and administrators
• discipline fairness,
• safety,
• welcoming culture, and
• support for diversity and inclusion.

Teacher Perceptions

Some of the more common topics in surveys of teachers include the following:

• high expectations for students and teachers,
• relationships with students and administrators,
• climate,
• discipline fairness,
• safety,
• welcoming culture for students and teachers,
• support for diversity and inclusion, and
• leadership behaviors.

Test Scores

Test scores are collected at the individual student level and then aggregated to the classroom, grade level, school level, and district level. The data is often disaggregated by school characteristics, such as participation in the federal free-/reduced-price lunch program, race/ethnicity, gender, grade level, and age. You will be learning more about different types of test score data in Modules 3 and 4.

Other Student Learning Data

Student test scores (standardized or not) are not the only ways to measure student learning. Teachers may also use formative assessments, which are a way to check for understanding as students are learning; digital portfolios; or even their own observations.