The effect of teacher data use professional development interventions on student achievement: A meta-analysis and qualitative comparative analysis

Abstract

This meta-analysis combined with a qualitative analysis focused on effective data use professional development interventions and intervention design characteristics for teachers. The 27 included studies had a total of 86 effect sizes and used student achievement as outcome measure. Intervention design characteristics and study design characteristics were included as moderator variables. A random-effects multilevel meta-analysis showed a medium-sized positive effect on student achievement (g =.41) with significant heterogeneity. Moderator analysis showed that when study design was controlled for, intervention design characteristics did not significantly affect student achievement. A moderate to strong correlation was found between intervention design and study design (i.e., studies with a theoretically more effective intervention design tended to have a higher possibility of methodological bias). However, the qualitative analysis showed that data use-specific intervention and school (implementation) characteristics were associated with higher effect sizes.