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A Template for Preparing a Meta-analysis of Evaluation Results: Informing School Board Members of the Impact of Grant Programs
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| Presenter(s):
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| Paul Rendulic, PerforMetrics of Florida, rendulic@earthlink.net
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| Abstract:
Every year school districts compete for and receive federal and state funded grants. These grants usually require that an external evaluator conduct a third party evaluation of the funded program. Customarily the evaluator submits either formative and/or summative evaluation reports covering the status of the program implementation and the extent to which objectives have been attained. Unfortunately, this is where the dissemination of information usually ends; a filing cabinet full of evaluation reports. What about the ubiquitous impact of these grant programs across school district employees and students? To what extent are stakeholders informed of the overall impact that federal and state funded grants have on school district? This will not happen without a process to effectively summarize evaluation reports across multiple grants. This session presents a reporting template that when completed produces a user friendly, meta-analysis of annual evaluations.
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Shift the Attention From Research Design to Research Use: What School Policy Makers Need to Know When Presented With Research?
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| Presenter(s):
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| Bo Yan, Blue Valley School District, byan@bluevalleyk12.org
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| Mike Slagle, Blue Valley School District, mslagle@bluevalleyk12.org
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| Abstract:
As schools turn to data-driven decision making to improve student achievement, research is playing an increasingly important role in local policy making. Efforts have been made to help policy makers better understand research with a focus on research design and method. However, how to better use research has received little attention. This paper addresses this matter by discussing five issues concerning interpreting and applying research: 1) there is a difference between sample-based and population-based research; 2) statistical results are best guesses rather than decisive answers; 3) statistically significant results are not everything; 4) not all research results are applicable to local setting; and 5) research results are just one source of evidence. It is hoped that school administrators will have a new perspective when interpreting and applying research and feel empowered to ask more from researchers.
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