| Session Title: Collaborative Evaluation Communities In Urban Schools: How Hierarchical Educational Policies Shape Its Implementation |
| Multipaper Session 717 to be held in Room 109 in the Convention Center on Friday, Nov 7, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM |
| Sponsored by the Organizational Learning and Evaluation Capacity Building TIG |
| Chair(s): |
| Frances Lawrenz, University of Minnesota, lawrenz@umn.edu |
| Discussant(s): |
| Douglas Huffman, University of Kansas, huffman@ku.edu |
| Kelli Thomas, University of Kansas, kthomas@ku.edu |
| Abstract: Federal, district, and school level educational policies influenced the implementation of Collaborative Evaluation Communities in three urban schools in one Midwestern state over a three-year period. Discussants compare their CEC experiences in another Midwestern state. Federal policy promoted accessibility of student performance data and created a climate of accountability. This increased the importance of educational evaluation, but shifted school district resources to tested subjects, such as mathematics, at the expense of other educational outcomes. Montessori school policies combined students across grades, which created challenges for developing appropriate instructional interventions and assessments, but increased collaboration among teachers. School policies of site-based management and data-based decision-making supported the development of individualized instructional inquiries among middle school teachers in a gifted and talented school. Evaluation capacity increased due to school policies that rotated teachers at an urban elementary school that was not making AYP. |
| Developing Collaborative Evaluation Communities in Public K-12 Schools |
| Anica G Bowe, University of Minnesota, bowe0152@umn.edu |
| This multipaper session will discuss how education policies have shaped the progress of the Collaborative Evaluation Communities in Urban Schools project (CEC Project) in the St Paul public schools. The CEC project is designed to enhance the evaluation capacity of K-8 schools and develop the evaluation expertise of graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. The CEC project has created school-based collaborative evaluation communities comprised of teachers, instructional coaches, graduate students, and university faculty. The goals of the project are to improve the evaluation capacity of urban schools; develop graduate-level educational leaders with the knowledge and skills to evaluate science and mathematics education programs; and develop the evaluation capacity of K-8 teachers. The papers presented in this section will focus on the hierarchical effects of federal, state, district, and school policies on the overall progress of the CEC model in the St Paul, MN public school system. |
| The Influence of Federal Educational Policies on Creating Collaborative Evaluation Communities |
| Randi K Nelson, University of Minnesota, nelso326@umn.edu |
| Frances Lawrenz, University of Minnesota, lawrenz@umn.edu |
| The implementation of the Collaborative Evaluation Communities (CEC) project was affected by Federal policies most notably the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. The federal government required its agencies to be accountable through the Governmental Performance Results Act and most recently through Program Assessment Rating Tools and the Academic Competitiveness Council report favoring randomized controlled evaluation designs. The NCLB required States to test all children in mathematics and reading and to have a system for certifying teachers as highly qualified. This produced a climate of accountability and provided large amounts of student data. It also highlighted the academic disparities of ethnic minority students. The policies were a double-edged sword for CEC. Achievement became the key component of program evaluation often to the exclusion of any other valued outcomes. However, the pressure it provided made schools and teachers receptive to outside help to show adequate yearly progress and teacher quality. |
| Navigating NCLB at the District Level |
| Lesa M Covington Clarkson, University of Minnesota, covin005@umn.edu |
| The No Child Left Behind Act has essentially changed the way school districts do business. Data collection, analysis, disaggregation, and dissemination have moved beyond the district level to the school level and more specifically to the classroom level. While data analysis is not new to any district, the way in which data motivates change is different. The implications of the results have caused proactive and reactive measures including the reorganization of schools. Because the sanctions of NCLB are progressive, school officials are continually evaluating programs and their impact on student achievement, particularly students who are underperforming. Thus, evaluation has become a critical component of school district business. Underperformance prompted CEC to primarily focus attention on mathematics. |
| The Influence of School-level Policies on Collaborative Evaluation in a Public Montessori Program |
| Christopher D Desjardins, University of Minnesota, desja004@umn.edu |
| The Collaborative Evaluations Communities (CEC) project has been involved at the Daughter of the Moon school since Summer 2007. The Daughter of the Moon is a Montessori public school located in an urban environment. The classrooms are organized into three levels and students work in classrooms of different age groups. The CEC has had to work through a paradox; how to best develop a mathematical program broad enough to cover students that are traditionally in three separate grades and specific enough to focus on each age groups specific need. The school administration has placed an emphasis on district scores and state standardized tests. These tests are largely absent from the Montessori curriculum which places an emphasis on manipulatives. The CEC has worked with Daughter of the Moon to develop tests and train teacher to interpret data from these tests to prepare the students. |
| The Influence of School-level Policies on Collaborative Evaluation in a Public Gifted and Talented Middle School |
| Herb Struss, University of Minnesota, strus010@umn.edu |
| The CEC project was involved at the district's gifted and talented (grades 1-8) magnet school for two and a half school years. The school had a culture of site based management and policies supported data based decision making, group work and individual teacher excellence. The policy of site based management supported an evaluation of the instructional activities of the elementary teachers to help align the curriculum across the middle grades. The teachers capitalized on the support for data based decision making by designing individual projects. One teacher collected data on the achievement gap for non-gifted students enrolled at the school. Another teacher designed a theme based mathematics unit involving technology; gathering student performance data and utilizing it as part of a successful Master's degree effort. A third teacher implemented a teaching strategy change, collected data to evaluate the results, and submitted the project to meet the school's professional development policy. |
| The Influence of School-level Policies on Collaborative Evaluation in an Urban Public Elementary School |
| David J Fischer, University of Minnesota, fisch413@umn.edu |
| Banneker Elementary is an urban school with 93% of students receiving free or reduced lunch, and a minority population of 97%. Policies at the school level had several effects on the implementation of the CEC project at Banneker. Taken chronologically, because the grade levels were originally chosen because of low test scores and also because of the needs of the teachers was greater, CEC at Banneker concentrated on curriculum implementation early on as well as supplementation of the curriculum. The policy of keeping students with the same teacher from year to year created early opportunities to expand the project as teachers now outside the target grades wanted to continue with the project. Because the school did not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), the administration of the school placed a greater emphasis on mathematics and the CEC project was expanded to all grades in the building. |