Wasco, IL -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/12/2014 --A newly released book written by a respected educational consultant is helping teachers, principals and school district administrators truly understand data and how they may leverage it for improved programs and decision-making.

The book, titled “Data Literacy for Educators: Good Data, Bad Data,” offers readers in-depth background information on the technical adequacy of data, and then provides further insights on how they may use what they’ve learned in a school setting. The author, Dr. Joyce A. Laben, uses humor and anecdotes from her real-world experiences to add perspective to the various concepts highlighted in the book.

“I am very pleased to release ‘Data Literacy for Educators’ to the public, as this is the book that educators have been waiting for to effectively use data to their advantage when planning and implementing programs,” said Dr. Laben. “It’s particularly helpful at a time when teachers and administrators need to rely more heavily on data and assessments as part of the Common Core State Standards, growth modeling and other recent initiatives at the federal and state levels.”

The book focuses largely on the two most important components related to the use of data — reliability and validity. Once readers have sound understanding of these concepts in the first few chapters, they then examine all types of assessments viewed through the lens of data’s technical adequacy. Dr. Laben provides a number of examples and settings in which teachers and administrators can implement these concepts in the classroom.

About Dr. Laben
An educational consultant with several decades of experience, Dr. Laben is a leading expert on the use of data for school programming and decision-making. Over the course of her career, she has served as a school psychologist, special education coordinator, assistant principal and principal at the early childhood, elementary and middle school levels.

Through her firm, Laben Consulting, she offers a wide range of staff development workshops, and she has conducted doctoral research on the Response to Intervention model and the predictive validity of screeners used for progress monitoring.

To learn more about Dr. Laben’s work and the book “Data Literacy for Educators: Good Data, Bad Data,” visit http://www.labenconsulting.com.