| Session Title: Using Mixed Methods to Evaluate the North Carolina Disadvantage Student Supplement Fund (DSSF) on Academically Disadvantaged Students |
| Multipaper Session 399 to be held in Federal Hill Suite on Thursday, November 8, 1:55 PM to 3:25 PM |
| Sponsored by the Pre-K - 12 Educational Evaluation TIG |
| Chair(s): |
| Gary T Henry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, gthenry@email.unc.edu |
| Abstract: To improve the education of academically at-risk students in 2004, the North Carolina Board of Education initiated a pilot program: Disadvantaged Student Supplement Fund (DSSF). The evaluation team designed and implemented a mixed-methods approach to obtain a deeper understanding of the overarching goal of the DSSF. The evaluation estimates the effects on the learning and performance of students, especially disadvantaged students. Paper one presents the cross-cutting analysis of DSSF implementation in the 16 pilot districts, highlighting the process of and barriers to program implementation. Paper two estimates the impacts of DSSF on high school students' performance on end of course exams. Paper three compares the process results and intermediate outcome measures by examining the students' exposure to higher quality teachers both in pilot districts and the rest of the state. Paper four analyzes change in student outcomes over the two-year period using end of grade test scores. |
| Implementation of the North Carolina Disadvantaged Student Supplement Fund |
| Charles Thompson, East Carolina University, thompsonchar@ecu.edu |
| As the 2004-2005 school year began, the 16 Disadvantaged Student Supplement Fund (DSSF) pilot districts in North Carolina were notified that they were going to receive additional funds to improve the education of academically disadvantaged students in their schools. Qualitative data was gathered through extensive field work in each of the 16 pilot districts, including interviews with the superintendents, principals, and teacher focus groups. A detailed analysis of the financial records of the districts was also completed. In this paper we describe: 1) the specific educational problems that the districts sought to remedy using the DSSF; 2) the implementation of their plans, 3) the way the districts actually expended their funds in 2004-2005. |
| Impacts of the North Carolina Disadvantaged Student Supplement Fund on High School Student Achievement |
| C Kevin Fortner, Georgia State University, dpockfx@langate.gsu.edu |
| This paper examines the impacts of DSSF monies on high school student achievement using a rigorous, quasi-experimental approach. The detailed nature of the dataset available for this analysis provides the ability to specify a complete education production function for student achievement which includes the effects of school, classroom, individual, and peer inputs with specification of DSSF resources at the classroom level. This paper uses a Hierarchical Linear Modeling approach to estimate impacts on student achievement across the state in three core subject areas using standardized End of Course tests (English I, Algebra I, and Biology I). Detailed student and teacher administrative records and classroom assignments allow an unprecedented level of detail to be integrated into models estimating the effects of DSSF expenditures. |
| Process Quality - Student's Exposure to Higher Teacher Quality |
| Dana Rickman, Georgia State University, drickman@gsu.edu |
| A number of studies have shown differences in the quality of teachers for schools with high concentrations of economically disadvantaged students and students of color, suggesting that these students are not being taught by their fair share of higher quality teachers, as defined by teachers' general academic ability, mastery of content, experience, and pedagogical skill (Peske and Haycock, 2006). This paper will assess the allocation of quality teachers. We will show the percentage of time academically disadvantaged students have access to teachers of high quality when compared to their proficient peers. We compare the exposure to high quality teachers within the 16 districts with the exposure in the remainder of the state. In addition, we compare the same types of access rates for students with economic disadvantages and their more advantaged peers as well as the rates for White, African American, and Hispanic students. |
| Disadvantaged Student Trend Data |
| Kelley Dean, Georgia State University, padkmdx@langate.gsu.edu |
| Currently the DSSF program concentrates on providing resources to students who are below the state's sufficiency criteria. Comparing 2005 and 2006 data, we will provide descriptive information about the percentage of non-proficient students in the 16 DSSF districts compared to the rest of the state. We will also present an analysis of the extent to which students move into proficiency or drop below proficiency from 2005 to 2006. Tracing the movement of students into and out of proficiency it draws attention to the fact that more students fall out of proficiency than achieve proficiency nearly every year, which suggests that resources to keep students at-risk of dropping below the proficiency scores should be considered in improvement planning. This should have very important implications for changing the focus of the program. |