Investigation of school administrators' use of data in management processes in the context of an effective school: A mixed methods research

This study, which aims to examine the data usage of school administrators during management processes in the context of effective schools, was conducted by using an explanatory sequential design which is one of the mixed method researchs. Quantitative data was analyzed first in this design which consist of two consecutive research sequences and qualitative data was used to explain the quantitative data. A correrational survey design was preferred because it was focused on the relationship between data usage level of school administrators during management processes in the quantitative dimension and school effectiveness. In the qualitative dimension, descriptive phenomenology which is about what type of data school administrators use, the advantages and disadvantages of data usage, the purposes of usage, the administrative practices in which they are used, and their suggestions for usage were analyzed within the scope of interpretative phenomenology. The population of the study consisted of school administrators and teachers working in public primary, secondary and high schools in Kahramanmaraş in the 2021-2022 academic year. The sample consisted of 305 teachers and 143 school administrators determined by stratified random sampling method which is one of the random sampling method. The study group of the qualitative phase included 13 school administrators selected from different school levels to ensure maximum diversity. In the quantitative dimension of the study, "The Scale of Data Usage during Management Processes of School Administrators" developed by the researcher and "The Effective School Scale" developed by Hoy (2009) and adapted into Turkish by Yıldırım and Ada (2018) were used as the data collection tools. In the qualitative dimension, a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher was used. The quantitative and qualitative data obtained in the study were analyzed with different methods. In the analysis of the qualitative data of the study, the records collected as a result of face-to-face interviews with school administrators were analyzed with the content analysis technique. Open-source R program was used in the analysis of quantitative data. As a result of the research, it was seen that data usage level of school administrators during management processes was in the "Agree" range according to both teacher and administrator opinions. According to the opinions of school administrators, the data usage during school management processes does not show a statistically significant difference according to the variables of gender and educational level, but it differs according to the variables of seniority in administration and school level. School administrators stated that the most important advantage of using data during management processes is that it facilitates the identification of deficiencies. In addition, some opinions were obtained that the data has advantages such as creating preliminary information, contributing to school efficiency and providing process evaluation opportunities. According to the results of the research, the administrative practices in which school administrators used data during their management processes were come under three different categories: school, student and personnel affairs. As a result of the research, school administrators made the most of the suggestions for the ministry, such as providing more data for schools and organizing in-service trainings for school administrators; evaluating the provincial organizations holistically and interacting more to collect data for other school administrators. In the study, it was observed that school administrators used opinion and suggestion data and academic achievement data mostly in the planning process; academic achievement data in the decision-making, organizing and influencing processes; school indicator data in the communication process; demographic data in the coordination process, and the performance data in the supervision process. The purposes of school administrators' data usage are development of students in the decision-making and planning process; maximum efficiency in the organizing process, giving information in the communication process; persuading stakeholders in the influencing process; coordinating projects and studies in the coordination process and objective evaluation in the supervision process. In the study, it was concluded that the level of effectiveness of the schools was in the "Agree" range according to both teachers' and administrators' views. According to the views of both groups, data usage of school administrators during management processes is a significant predictor of effective schools. The predictive level, which is 52% according to teachers' views, is 42% according to administrators' views. All school administrators who participated in the research stated that it is important to make use of data to make the school more effective. The advantages of data in school effectiveness are listed respectively as providing information, enabling process follow-up, showing the failing aspects, providing objectivity, gaining credibility and improving organizational commitment. According to the results obtained at the end of the research, suggestions developed for the ministry, provincial organizations and school administrators are given.