• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
SRI InternationalSRI mobile logo

SRI International

SRI International - American Nonprofit Research Institute

  • About
    • Blog
    • Press room
  • Expertise
    • Advanced imaging systems
    • Artificial intelligence
    • Biomedical R&D services
    • Biomedical sciences
    • Computer vision
    • Cyber & formal methods
    • Education and learning
    • Innovation strategy and policy
    • National security
    • Ocean & space
    • Quantum
    • QED-C
    • Robotics, sensors & devices
    • Speech & natural language
    • Video test & measurement
  • Ventures
  • NSIC
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • 日本支社
Show Search
Hide Search
Home » Archives for Nicole Arshan

Nicole Arshan

SRI Author

  • Nicole Arshan

    Senior Principal Education Researcher and Evaluation Methods Lead

    View all posts

Education & learning publications June 1, 2021 Tech Report

Evaluation of the College, Career, and Community Writers Program: Findings from the i3 Scale-up Grant

C.J. Park, Nicole Arshan, Allison Milby, Rebecca L. Goetz June 1, 2021

The National Writing Project’s (NWP) College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) is designed to improve students’ argument writing through intensive teacher professional development, instructional resources, and formative assessment. In 2016, based on evidence of C3WP’s prior success in improving student achievement, NWP received a federal Investing in Innovation (i3) Scaleup grant to test C3WP in new contexts.

Education & learning publications April 13, 2021 Tech Report

Research Brief: SRI Finds Positive Effects of the College, Career, and Community Writer’s Program on Student Achievement

Nicole Arshan, C.J. Park April 13, 2021

The National Writing Project’s (NWP) College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) is designed to improve students’ argument writing through intensive teacher professional development, instructional resources, and formative assessment. In 2016, based on evidence of C3WP’s prior success in improving student achievement, NWP received a federal Investing in Innovation (i3) Scaleup grant to test C3WP in new contexts.
As part of this grant, SRI International (SRI) conducted a 1-year random assignment evaluation of C3WP in grades 7–9 that found consistent program implementation and positive, statistically significant impacts on student writing achievement.
This is the third evaluation of C3WP in secondary grades, all of which have found positive and statistically significant effects on student achievement. The size, scale, rigor, and independence of these three studies provide a strong evidence base to support C3WP’s effectiveness in improving students’ secondary writing achievement at scale and in diverse contexts.
This research brief provides a high-level overview of C3WP and its evidence base.

Education & learning publications May 1, 2020 Article

The Pathway to Academic Success: Scaling Up a Text-Based Analytical Writing Intervention for Latinos and English Learners in Secondary School

Katrina Woodworth, Nicole Arshan May 1, 2020

This study reports findings from a multisite cluster randomized controlled trial designed to validate and scale up an existing successful professional development program that uses a cognitive strategies approach to text-based analytical writing. The Pathway to Academic Success Project worked with partner districts affiliated with 4 National Writing Project (NWP) sites in southern California. Informed by a wide body of research on the efficacy of strategy instruction to enhance students’ academic literacy, the intervention aimed to help secondary school students, particularly Latinos and mainstreamed English learners, to develop the academic writing skills called for in the rigorous Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. Two hundred thirty teachers from partner districts affiliated with the NWP sites were stratified by school and grade and then randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. Treatment teachers participated in 46 hrs of training and learned how to apply cognitive strategies by using an on-demand writing assessment to help students understand, interpret, and write analytical essays about nonfiction texts. Multilevel models revealed significant effects on a holistic measure of an on-demand writing assessment ( d = .32) as well as on 4 analytic attributes: content ( d = .31), structure ( d = .29), fluency ( d = .27), and conventions ( d = .32). Four dimensions of scaling up—spread, reform ownership, depth, and sustainability—are also discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Education & learning publications December 1, 2019 Tech Report

Evaluation of National Writing Project’s College-Ready Writer’s Program 2015 SEED Grant

Nicole Arshan, C.J. Park December 1, 2019

The National Writing Project’s (NWP) College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) provides professional development for teachers in Grades 7–10 with the goal of improving students’ source-based argument writing. C3WP aims to build teachers’ understanding of and skill in teaching argument writing. C3WP was subject to a prior rigorous evaluation, which found that 2 years of C3WP had a positive impact on writing outcomes for students in Grades 7-10 in high-need, rural districts (Gallagher et al., 2017). C3WP was formerly called the College-Ready Writers Program (CRWP). In 2015, with the support of a Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grant, the National Writing Project sought to extend the reach of the program to nonrural contexts and to examine the efficacy of a short-cycle version of the program. The SEED grant also supported researchers at SRI Education to conduct an independent evaluation (a within-teacher randomized controlled trial) designed to examine both program implementation and the impact of the program on teachers’ instructional practices and student learning. This report presents the results of the short-cycle impact analysis that focused on 7th and 8th grade English Language Arts (ELA) teachers in high-needs districts. The technical report begins with a discussion of the C3WP program components and intended outcomes. Then, it describes the research design including a discussion of recruitment and randomization; site, teacher, class, and student samples; and data and methods. Finally, the report provides findings related to program implementation, teacher practice outcomes, and student learning outcomes. Ultimately, we find that the short-cycle implementation of C3WP had positive and statistically significant impacts on a measure of student writing achievement.

Education & learning publications December 1, 2019 Tech Report

Emerging Leaders Program: Impacts on Students, Teachers, and Leaders in Three Sites

Nicole Arshan, Katrina Laguarda, Jared Boyce, Andrea D. Beesley, Rebecca L. Goetz, Xin Wei, Elise Levin-Guracar December 1, 2019

In 2017–18, New Leaders partnered with SRI Education to undertake a randomized control trial of the Emerging Leaders program in three sites: Arlington Independent School District and San Antonio Independent School District in Texas and Shelby County Schools in Tennessee. The Emerging Leaders program was implemented largely as designed and had a positive, statistically significant impact on participants’ data-driven instruction leadership knowledge. This large impact on leadership knowledge led to few measured impacts on the instructional practice of teachers on Emerging Leaders participants’ instructional teams. The program had positive impacts on the math achievement of some subgroups of students. Impacts on overall math achievement were mediated by (i.e., operated through) program impacts on participants’ leadership knowledge and by teachers’ participation on instructional teams. The Emerging Leaders program had no measured impact on students’ English language arts (ELA) achievement. Supplemental analyses suggest that these differences in student achievement impacts may have been driven by differences in how datadriven instruction was enacted by math- and ELA-focused instructional teams.

Education & learning publications August 23, 2018 Article

Lifewide or School-Only Learning: Approaches to Addressing the Developing World’s Learning Crisis

Nicole Arshan August 23, 2018

This cluster randomized controlled trial tested the impact of school-only and lifewide-learning (LWL) approaches to supporting early-grade learning over 2 years in rural Rwanda. We compare school-only and LWL treatments with a business-as-usual control condition and with each other. Schools in both treatment groups received reading materials and teacher training. LWL villages also received support to enrich home and community literacy ecologies. Student reading assessments, administered across 21 sectors (analogous to U.S. school districts), showed that both treatments positively impacted learning. LWL produced a greater impact, particularly in oral comprehension, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. However, nearly one third of the students lacked basic skills at endline, indicating that further efforts are needed to address the learning crisis in the least-developed countries.

Education & learning publications August 11, 2018 Tech Report

Linked Learning San Bernardino (LLSB): Accelerating College and Career Readiness in Low-Performing Schools

Nicole Arshan August 11, 2018

In 2013, ConnectEd received an Investing in Innovation (i3) Development grant to support the development of Linked Learning career-themed academies in four high schools in the San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD). This technical report provides an independent evaluation examining both the program implementation and the impact of the program on students’ cognitive and noncognitive outcomes.

Literacy and language arts publications March 1, 2018 Tech Report

Impacts on Students of a Short-Cycle Implementation of the National Writing Project’s College, Career, and Community Writers Program

Nicole Arshan, C.J. Park March 1, 2018

In an independent evaluation, SRI International found that a two-year implementation of the National Writing Project’s College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) had a positive, statistically significant effect on a validated measure of students’ source-based argument writing (Gallagher, Arshan, & Woodworth, 2017).In response to policymakers’ and district leaders’ questions about the intensity of resources used, the National Writing Project partnered with SRI to test the efficacy of a short-cycle implementation of C3WP. In this study, SRI randomized two classrooms of 31 teachers into either C3WP or business as usual. These were seventh- or eighth-grade classrooms in 12 urban and rural high-needs schools across five states. (One teacher withdrew from the study.) The teachers had six months to use C3WP curricular materials and formative assessment tools in their C3WP class before measuring student writing outcomes in both classes.
Teaching students to write arguments developed through reasoning and supported by the use of evidence from source material is complex. This study showed a positive, statistically significant impact on two attributes of student source-based argument writing, demonstrating promise for the short-cycle version of C3WP professional development in impacting students’ ability to engage in such writing. The findings were less robust than those from the two-year version of the program, however. This suggests that although schools may see results from C3WP in a single school year, a longer term investment may produce a greater impact. This study also expanded C3WP into urban contexts, demonstrating potential effectiveness for a broader range of students.

Literacy and language arts publications December 1, 2017 Tech Report

UC Irvine Writing Project’s pathway to academic success program: An Investing in Innovation (i3) validation grant evaluation.

Katrina Woodworth, Nicole Arshan December 1, 2017

This technical report provides impact and implementation fidelity results from SRI’s Evaluation of the Pathway to Academic Success Project –i3 Validation Grant. The Pathway Project is a teacher professional development program designed by the University of California, Irvine Writing Project to enhance classroom literacy instruction so that English learners and their peers in high-need schools are prepared for success in core academic subjects and meet the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. The program is funded through a U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation (i3) validation grant.

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to Next Page »

How can we help?

Once you hit send…

We’ll match your inquiry to the person who can best help you.

Expect a response within 48 hours.

Career call to action image

Make your own mark.

Search jobs
Our work

Case studies

Publications

Timeline of innovation

Areas of expertise

Blog

Institute

Leadership

Press room

Media inquiries

Compliance

Privacy policy

Careers

Job listings

Contact

SRI Ventures

Our locations

Headquarters

333 Ravenswood Ave
Menlo Park, CA 94025 USA

+1 (650) 859-2000

Subscribe to our newsletter

日本支社

SRI International

  • Contact us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • DMCA
  • Copyright © 2022 SRI International