Databusting for Schools

Richard Selfridge is a primary school teacher, data consultant and writer on education. His 2018 book for Sage Publications, Databusting for Schools, is an essential guide to the use and interpretation of education data. As well as teaching, working with schools on their use of education data and writing about education, Richard works as a consultant for the Driver Youth Trust supporting inclusion for literacy. A passionate advocate of sensible use of data in schools, Richard was part of ASCL’s primary assessment expert panel alongside James, which indirectly lead to James and Richard working together as the Databusters, running workshops across the country and co-hosting the Databusters podcast. In his spare time, Richard can be found hunting follies, usually by bike, or playing, listening to, watching, talking, or thinking about music. He lives in Leeds with his wife Lindsay and daughters Martha and Connie.

In the increasingly data-swamped world of education, data literacy is no longer a desirable skill, it is essential. Databusting for Schools is part guide through the complexities, uses and limitations of data; and part challenge to those who too readily make assumptions and draw conclusions. This is an important book.

• Chapter 1: Databusting for Schools - an introduction to using and interpreting education dataChapter 2: Gathering education data – Where does it come from?Chapter 3: Understanding numerical data in education – the what, how and why of numbersChapter 4: Understanding variables – the what and how of informationChapter 5: Descriptive statistics – Where are we now?Chapter 6: Inferential statistics – What does the bigger picture look like?Chapter 7: Correlational statistics – Does one thing really lead to another?Chapter 8: Critically appraising statistics – Using what you have learntChapter 9: Data-based school research and policy – using data to understand and change educationChapter 10: The data debate – the ongoing discussion about numbers in education