AP AP Data-Driven Decision Making 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following is an example of leading indicator data for a school improvement team?
- Last year's graduation rate
- Weekly attendance rates and early warning system flags (Correct answer)
- State test scores from two years ago
- Annual teacher turnover rates
Correct answer: Weekly attendance rates and early warning system flags
Leading indicators like weekly attendance and early warning flags predict future outcomes in time to intervene.
Question 2: A school improvement plan identifies chronic absenteeism as a priority. Which data analysis approach is MOST useful?
- Reviewing daily substitute teacher logs
- Identifying which student subgroups, grade levels, and time periods show highest absence rates (Correct answer)
- Counting total absences school-wide
- Comparing the school's rate to national averages only
Correct answer: Identifying which student subgroups, grade levels, and time periods show highest absence rates
Detailed disaggregation by subgroup, grade, and timing pinpoints who needs support and when, enabling targeted outreach.
Question 3: An assistant principal wants to build staff capacity for data analysis. The BEST professional development approach is:
- Sending teachers links to data analysis articles
- Facilitating structured data inquiry protocols during collaborative planning time (Correct answer)
- Having the assistant principal analyze all data and report findings to staff
- Purchasing a data dashboard software tool
Correct answer: Facilitating structured data inquiry protocols during collaborative planning time
Structured data inquiry protocols build teachers' skills to analyze and act on data themselves, creating sustainable capacity.
Question 4: When presenting student achievement data to teachers, an assistant principal should MOST importantly ensure that:
- Data is presented in the most complex statistical format available
- Data is connected to specific instructional implications and next steps (Correct answer)
- Only high-performing teachers see the full data set
- Data is shared only after state testing cycles
Correct answer: Data is connected to specific instructional implications and next steps
Data without actionable implications rarely changes practice; connecting data to next steps makes it useful for instruction.
Question 5: Which process describes the school improvement cycle used in most US school accountability frameworks?
- Plan → Test → Revise → Repeat
- Assess → Sort → Report → Archive
- Identify needs → Plan → Implement → Monitor → Evaluate (Correct answer)
- Collect data → Submit to district → Wait for feedback
Correct answer: Identify needs → Plan → Implement → Monitor → Evaluate
The continuous improvement cycle— identify, plan, implement, monitor, evaluate — is the standard framework underlying most US school improvement models.
Question 6: An assistant principal discovers that discipline referral data shows Black male students are referred at three times the rate of their peers. The MOST appropriate response is:
- Assume the pattern reflects behavior differences
- Launch a root-cause analysis examining teacher referral patterns, disciplinary definitions, and cultural factors (Correct answer)
- Remove the most frequently referring teachers
- Present the data to the district without further investigation
Correct answer: Launch a root-cause analysis examining teacher referral patterns, disciplinary definitions, and cultural factors
Disproportionate discipline data requires a root-cause analysis of systemic factors before conclusions or actions are determined.
AP AP Data-Driven Decision Making 2
Which of the following is an example of leading indicator data for a school improvement team?