| Session Title: Assessing the Impact of Three Dropout Prevention Strategies on Student Academic Achievement in Grades 6-12 in Texas |
| Multipaper Session 122 to be held in Suwannee 13 on Wednesday, Nov 11, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM |
| Sponsored by the Pre-K - 12 Educational Evaluation TIG |
| Chair(s): |
| Thomas Horwood, ICF International, thorwood@icfi.com |
| Discussant(s): |
| John Kuscera, Texas Education Agency, john.kucsera@tea.state.tx.us |
| Abstract: The Texas Legislature authorized and funded three pilot programs so that select districts and charter schools receiving grants could develop and implement programs to prevent and reduce dropout, increase high school success, and improve college and work readiness in public schools. In addition, the Texas Legislature authorized and funded the evaluation of these pilot programs and required that the evaluation assess the impact of the programs on student performance, high school completion rates, college readiness of high school students, teacher effectiveness in instruction, as well as the cost-effectiveness of each program. The objectives of the evaluation are to do each of the following for each pilot program: (1) evaluate the implementation of each program, (2) evaluate the impact of each program on student outcomes (e.g., achievement, college readiness, workforce readiness, graduation), and (3) evaluate the impact of each program on other relevant outcomes (e.g., teacher effectiveness). |
| An Evaluation of the Intensive Summer Program (ISP) in Texas Schools |
| Rosemarie O'Conner, ICF International, ro'conner@icfi.com |
| John Kuscera, Texas Education Agency, john.kucsera@tea.state.tx.us |
| Carol Kozak Hawk, ICF International, carolkozakhawk@gmail.com |
| The Intensive Summer Program (ISP) provides summer instruction for "at risk" students in Texas with the goals of reducing dropout, increasing school achievement, and promoting college and workforce readiness skills among students. Using a mixed methods approach, this presentation examines statistical analyses of student achievement data and the survey results from school administrators, teachers, and students. Hierarchical linear models (HLM) are used to examine the results of student achievement in standardized tests to determine whether the ISP program positively affected student academic achievement over time. Student surveys are used to further understand the relationships uncovered in statistical analyses, while surveys from the school administrators and teachers shed light on the additional positive benefits from the ISP program. Concluding remarks focus on the evaluation of the ISP program and identify future directions and lesson learned from this evaluation. |
| An Evaluation of the Collaborative Dropout Reduction Program in Texas Schools |
| Frances Burden, ICF International, fburden@icfi.com |
| John Kuscera, Texas Education Agency, john.kuscera@tea.state.tx.us |
| Sarah Decker, ICF International, sdecjer@icfi.com |
| The Collaborative Dropout Reduction program is a school-based program aimed at promoting academic achievement and college and workforce readiness in students. Considerable differences exist between the six Collaborative programs in their approaches to developing students' academic and workforce readiness skills. This evaluation examines student achievement across multiple campuses using HLM models, with particular attention to the larger programmatic differences. Additional analyses focus on student self-reported assessments of ethical workplace behaviors and their own college and workforce readiness, which serve to offer greater insight into the statistical results. Finally, interviews with the Collaborative programmatic staff and school administrators uncover additional school-wide positive benefits from the Collaborative program. Concluding remarks will focus on the difficulties encountered in evaluating six diverse Collaborative programs and how commonalities and differences were uncovered and measured. |
| An Evaluation of the Impact of Teacher Mathematics Instructional Coaches Training on Teachers and Schools |
| Amy Mack, ICF International, amack@icfi.com |
| John Kuscera, Texas Education Agency, john.kucsera@tea.state.tx.us |
| The Mathematics Instructional Coaches (MIC) pilot program provides assistance in developing the content knowledge and instructional expertise of teachers who instruct "at risk" students in mathematics at middle and high schools. The evaluation of the MIC program examines whether strengthening mathematics teachers' knowledge, skills, and abilities led to improvements in teachers' self-efficacy and beliefs about teaching. Surveys and interviews were collected from stakeholders in the MIC program, including administrators and grant coordinators, in order to further understand the results from teacher self-reported measures. Finally, this presentation will conclude with a discussion of the challenges the MIC program faced in developing student-level and school-level findings from programs aimed at training teachers. |