Data & Digital Literacy for School Self-Evaluation: Evidences from Italy

The paper focuses on school evaluation as a “data-driven process of inquiry and decision-making” (Ackoff, 1989; Mandinach & Gummer, 2016). Through the Italian National Evaluation System of instruction and training, the Self-Evaluation Report (SER) and the Improvement Plan, a systemic design is encouraged. During the first research step, the integrated model “Data & Digital Literacy for School Evaluation” had been elaborated. After the desk research on the model, a quantitative study started with the aim of investigating three main topics: 1) Self-Evaluation; 2) Data & Digital Literacy; 3) Experience with external evaluation. An online survey was organized and is currently in progress, aimed at School Principals and the members of the Internal Evaluation Teams of 158 Italian schools. This contribution focuses mainly on the aspect concerning Data & Digital Literacy. What it is hoped to derive from this survey is an overview of the specific training needs for those who carry out the activities of the school evaluation process, through a data-based profiling of participants (clustering). Finally, it is planned to systematize the newly gained knowledge in order to define large-scale training courses based on the information provided by the survey. Results will be shown at the conference, opening up an opportunity to discuss the opportunities for a competence-based approach in school evaluation processes from an integrated perspective of evaluation and learning.