ArticlePublisher preview available

Evolving data use policy in Trinidad and Tobago: the search for actionable knowledge on educational improvement in a small island developing state

Authors:
Jerome De Lisle
Jerome De Lisle
Jerome De Lisle
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Read publisher preview
Download citation
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author.

Abstract and Figures

This paper presents a single-country case study of the use of large scale assessment (LSA) data to generate actionable knowledge at school and system levels. Actionable knowledge is data-informed insight into school and system processes that can be used to direct corrective action. The analysis is framed from the perspective of the country’s evolving national policy on data use for educational improvement between 1990 and 2013. Trinidad and Tobago first participated in international large scale assessments (ILSAs) in 1991 but also developed a centralized system of national large scale assessments (NLSAs) in 2004. Analyses of both datasets consistently pointed to low quality and high inequality as the main actionable issues in the education system. NLSA data also hinted at notable variation in performance across schools and education districts. Analyses for and of policy point to the need for multiple school performance measures to better inform site-based, formative action. Over the period, actionable knowledge appears to have had greater impact at school level, with evidence being used by some low-performing schools to improve. However, at the system level, the frequent non-use and misuse of actionable knowledge suggest the need to promote and strengthen structures and processes related to evidence-informed policy-making.
Figures - available from: Educational Assessment Evaluation and Accountability
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
A preview of this full-text is provided by Springer Nature.
Learn more
Content available from Educational Assessment Evaluation and Accountability
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
Evolving data use policy in Trinidad and Tobago:
the search for actionable knowledge on educational
improvement in a small island developing state
Jerome De Lisle
1
Received: 7 June 2014 /Accepted: 18 November 2015 /Published online: 1 December 2015
#Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Abstract This paper presents a single-country case study of the use of large scale
assessment (LSA) data to generate actionable knowledge at school and system levels.
Actionable knowledge is data-informed insight into school and system processes that
can be used to direct corrective action. The analysis is framed from the perspective of
the country’s evolving national policy on data use for educational improvement
between 1990 and 2013. Trinidad and Tobago first participated in international large
scale assessments (ILSAs) in 1991 but also developed a centralized system of national
large scale assessments (NLSAs) in 2004. Analyses of both datasets consistently
pointed to low quality and high inequality as the main actionable issues in the education
system. NLSA data also hinted at notable variation in performance across schools and
education districts. Analyses for and of policy point to the need for multiple school
performance measures to better inform site-based, formative action. Over the period,
actionable knowledge appears to have had greater impact at school level, with evidence
being used by some low-performing schools to improve. However, at the system level,
the frequent non-use and misuse of actionable knowledge suggest the need to promote
and strengthen structures and processes related to evidence-informed policy-making.
Keywords Evidence-informed policy-making.Data usepolicy.Largescale assessments
.Schoolperformance feedbacksystems .Smallisland developingstates.Caribbean region
1 The context of educational improvement in Trinidad and Tobago
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is a unitary bloc of 41 countries which has
made significant progress in education during the last two decades (Bouillon and
Educ Asse Eval Acc (2016) 28:35–60
DOI 10.1007/s11092-015-9232-7
*Jerome De Lisle
jerome.delisle@sta.uwi.edu
1
School of Education, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... In English schools, data are regularly used to support teaching and learning, as well as school improvement [4]. Studies inclusive of school leaders in relation to national policy and standards contexts are available in Belgium [25], Norway [26], and Trinidad and Tobago [27], among others. ...
School Leader Preparation in the U.S. State of Virginia: Exploring the Relationship between Data Use in Standards and Program Delivery
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2024
National school leadership standards are now de facto curriculum for preparation programs. Data use is embedded throughout standards to guide school improvement and classroom instruction. Yet, across a number of areas, pre-service principals do not appear ready to lead once in the field. Principals are responsible for using various data to guide internal policies, school cultures, and capacity building, largely supporting teachers by establishing norms, expectations, and clear visions for data use in instructional decisions. In this study, we examined leadership preparation programs in one U.S. state to understand how data use is addressed in leader preparation. Our analysis of course description, syllabi, and program director interview data resulted in the following findings: (1) programs and courses seldom explicitly acknowledged data use as a topic; (2) when data use was acknowledged as a topic, it was infrequently tied to standards; (3) connections between data use and instructional change were limited; and (4) most programs relied on internships for leadership preparation programs to learn data use practices. There are opportunities for programs to make connections between standards, data use, and instructional improvement more explicit, as well as to clarify expectations for and increase oversight of field-based mentors.
View
View
View
Selective Education in Guyana: Comparing the Psychosocial Well-Being of Students Across Schools
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2020
Selective education research has demonstrated that students are aware of the low status of being allocated to a low-ability school. Recent data in Guyana has shown that low-ability school attendance is associated with low rates of student attendance, retention, and graduation. This study aims to understand the effects of ability grouping on students by comparing the psychosocial well-being of students from different ability schools. Data was collected from a sample of 193 adolescents (70 males and 123 females) aged 13-18 from four secondary schools; representing the four school ability rankings. It was hypothesised that student psychosocial well-being would be significantly lower in low-ability schools compared to high-ability schools. Unexpectedly, the results indicated that the highest ability school had significantly lower psychosocial well-being than the other lower ability schools. The results may be potentially explained by the theory of Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect, however confirmation in future research is warranted.
View
Insights on the Marginalization of Poor Children in the Education System of Trinidad and Tobago
Chapter
  • May 2019
Evidence points to multiple, intersecting marginalizations within the education system of Trinidad and Tobago. These are attributed to retained colonial structures, policies, practices, and institutional processes, as well as individual behaviors, beliefs, and expectations. The intersectionality of marginalization has not been well researched, with emphasis instead upon a few identity variables, most notably gender. Little is known about the critical role of socioeconomic status (SES), although there is strong evidence of urban and rural poverty. This chapter attempts to address this gap in knowledge by exploring the relationship between SES and achievement in Trinidad and Tobago. Evidence is drawn from primary and secondary analyses of data of International Learning Assessments (ILAs) and from National Learning Assessments (NLAs). ILA data show that poverty is concentrated in many secondary schools because of early selection at 11+. NLA data show sharp differences across geographic regions and gender. Evidence is also gathered from a local exploratory study of school SES, in which a multidimensional SES construct was developed and used as a proxy for family and childhood poverty. Although traditional components of school SES such as parental occupation and parental education were important, an expanded measure that included neighborhood, housing, and family structure effects appeared to add significant explanatory value. To explain the role of SES, I explore theory on social, cultural, and economic capital, arguing that relational cultural capital and social capital might be the primary determinants of socioeconomic disadvantage within this context.
View
Leading high-poverty primary schools in Trinidad and Tobago – what do successful principals do?
Article
  • Feb 2019
  • Educ Manag Admin Leader
In this study of high-poverty schools in Trinidad and Tobago, we (1) identified recurring patterns and generative mechanisms for successful principal leadership and (2) explored the utility of transformational, shared, and instructional leadership models. We argued that situational and country context are central to understanding school leadership and that the universality of some models might be limited. Using the lens of critical realism, we gathered evidence from a multiple case study of seven high-poverty schools. From the data, we constructed theory bridging leadership constructs of the global North with emergent local patterns and constructions. We found three meanings for successful leadership within this context, labelled as integrative, transformational and enabling, and academic-focused. The meanings attached to the in-vivo labels were consistent with the core components of shared, transformational, and instructional leadership. We extended these leadership meanings to describe specific activities and acts. Unique to this context was the data-centric focus of transformational leadership and the use of shared leadership as an early improvement strategy. Notably, however, academic-focused leadership was evident at only a few sites, possibly explaining the overall limited improvement trajectory.
View
Using an iterative mixed-methods research design to investigate schools facing exceptionally challenging circumstances within Trinidad and Tobago
Article
  • Apr 2017
In this study, methodology and theory were linked to explicate the nature of education practice within schools facing exceptionally challenging circumstances (SFECC) in Trinidad and Tobago. The research design was an iterative quan>QUAL-quan>qual multi-method research programme, consisting of 3 independent projects linked together by overall purpose. Although large-scale quantitative data were first used to identify and describe SFECC, the overall programme was driven by an inductive theoretical thrust, with findings from the multiple-site case studies of Projects 2 and 3 used to construct substantive theory on SFECC. The integrated findings point to the pervasive role of beyond-school factors, which were magnified and intertwined with between- and within-school factors. SFECC in this study found great difficulty transcending states of chronic low performance. We hypothesized on the need for transformative school leadership, but in this context, greater external support by stakeholder agencies and broad place-based strategies appeared essential for turnaround.
View
Measuring Socioeconomic Status at Individual and Collective Levels
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2004
This study investigated the multilevel dimensionality of socioeconomic status and its relationship to reading achievement in 23 countries. Different factor structures of SES were found at different levels' observations and in different countries. The study showed that the cultural dimension strongly related to student reading performance, while the school general capital dimension explained a large part of the between-school reading achievement differences. Most interestingly, the factor relationship between SES and reading achievement at the school level varies greatly across countries. It was argued that these variations might be due to the differences in the centralized versus decentralized educational finance, tracking mechanism and some social characteristics in different countries.
View
View
View
View
Making evidence matter: A new perspective on evidence- informed policy making in education
Book
  • Sep 2013
The arguments in favour of policy makers adopting an 'evidence-informed' approach are well established. In practice, however, the routine use of evidence is yet to be incorporated into educational policy making, with research being used to inform decision making in ad hoc, sporadic, and inconsistent ways. Policy makers are also prone to carefully selecting the evidence they do use, with alternative arguments dismissed as unfashionable, un-robust, or ideologically unsound. But, the work of government affects the lives of millions. If policies fail, therefore, they are likely to do so at huge cost to the taxpayer, while also resulting in inequitable, inefficient, or undesirable outcomes for large numbers of the population. Grounded both in empirical and theoretical analysis, this book re-examines the arguments in favour of an evidence-informed approach to education policy; spotlights the factors that lead to a wide variety of evidence and perspectives being disregarded by policy makers; and sets out why a paradigm of partnership between researchers and policy makers is required in order to improve the future for policy development. It argues that policy will never be 'evidence-informed', nor will initiatives be truly successful in the long term, unless both researchers (as storytellers) and policy makers (as audiences) understand and play their part in the 'evidence-informed' process. This book is aimed at both educational researchers and policy makers interested in enhancing the use of research outputs in policy making. While the book's primary domain is education, the concept of evidence-informed policy making has salience across a number of sectors, notably health and social care.
View
View
View
Failure-Free Education?: The Past, Present and Future of School Effectiveness and School Improvement
Book
  • Feb 2010
David Reynolds is recognised internationally as one of the leaders of the school effectiveness and school improvement movement, and Failure Free Education? brings together for the first time many of his most influential and provocative pieces. Drawing on the author's work from over three decades, these extracts from his seminal books, chapters, papers and articles combine to give a unique overview of how the movement developed, the problems involved in the application of the knowledge and the disciplines' potentially glittering future now. The book also covers the issues raised by, and lessons learned from, his close involvement with English government educational policymaking from the mid 1990s to date
View
Using Effectiveness Data for School Improvement: Developing and Utilising Metrics
Book
  • Dec 2010
Data metrics in schools are becoming increasingly complex and (some would say, as a result) increasingly less likely to effect change in classroom practice and schooling outcomes. Despite their best efforts, teachers generally find the measures something of a ‘black-box’. The authors of this book advocate a move away from this situation, towards a greater professional understanding; away from a ‘data dictatorship’ in which teachers are merely the passive recipients of data outcomes, towards a ‘data democracy’ in which teachers are instead active participants. The book lifts the lid on a range of data-gathering techniques and methods, and explores the provenance and problematisation of pupil / school data collection and utilisation. Chapters include: the political context of school data collection and how it is used for accountability and inspection purposes; how teachers and schools use pupil attainment and progress data; how ‘context’ is brought into measurement and how practitioners can interpret outcomes from different models; the use of data for target-setting, self-evaluation and school improvement; collection strategies and inter-agency data for post-compulsory progression; devising and using measures for evaluating progress in the social and emotional aspects of learning and ‘Every Child Matters’ outcomes; uncovering the differential effectiveness of schools across the range of prior attainment. Using Effectiveness Data for School Improvement brings together in one place, for the first time, the various metrics and models in use in schools. A full technical specification is included so that both ‘data experts’ and ‘data novices’ will find the book essential for understanding what is becoming an increasingly important aspect of school and curriculum management.
View
View