Raising Student Achievement in Poor Communities Through Evidence-Based Conversations

Improving the academic achievement of traditionally underserved students in New Zealand provided the context for this chapter by Mei Kuin Lai and Stuart McNaughton. In their conversations as researchers with a network of school leaders and teachers, these authors show how prior training in interpreting and using evidence led to sophisticated interpretations that were effective in providing the basis for improving instructional practice. An iterative process involving developing questions, gathering data to test different theories of identified problems, developing solutions and posing more focused questions were evident in the participants’ conversations and actions. The authors propose that the conditions enabling these conversations to occur included a professional community prepared to put their students’ needs above their own comfort by raising difficult issues, and sufficient knowledge to interpret the data while identifying what more they needed to know.