With funding from a U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation (i3) scale-up grant, NTC tested strategies for scaling its validated induction model to 301 schools in five school districts serving high proportions of students of color and students from low-income households.
Shining a Light on Algebra I Access and Success: Embracing Equity at All Levels
This REL Appalachia blog summarizes a recent IES report, examining Algebra I course taking pathways and outcomes based on students’ performance on Virginia’s grade 5 statewide math test.
Evaluation of the New Teacher Center (NTC) i3 scale-up grant: Cohort 1 preliminary teacher and student impact
SRI is conducting an independent five-year evaluation of the New Teacher Center’s federally funded Investing in Innovation Scale-up grant.
Comparing the Achievement of Students in Virtual Virginia and Face-to-Face Courses
The department partnered with REL Appalachia to examine the relationship between students’ participation in online courses and their performance on end-of-course exams.
Evaluation of the New Teacher Center (NTC) i3 Scale-up grant: Teacher practice impacts
SRI’s analysis of outcomes for two cohorts of teachers participating in the scale-up of the New Teacher Center’s intensive program of mentoring and induction for beginning teachers found that NTC induction had a positive impact on teacher classroom practice after two years of mentoring support. There was no difference in impacts between school-based and full-release sites, suggesting that the school-based mentoring model, one of NTC’s key scaling strategies, was as effective as the full-release model that was tested in an earlier study. These findings provide promising evidence that NTC induction support, delivered via strategies that allow scaling across a variety of district contexts, can help beginning teachers surmount early obstacles to success and focus on increasing their students’ learning.
The Study of Implementation of the ESEA Title I – Part C Migrant Education Program
In 2018, SRI conducted a study to examine how state MEP grantees and local/regional subgrantees implemented the program’s four central components—(1) identification and recruitment, (2) records transfer, (3) service delivery, and (4 ) coordination and collaboration—and thereby positioned the program to achieve its longer-term goals of reducing barriers to migratory children’s school success, closing the gaps in their academic achievement, and increasing their high school graduation rates. The study focused on four main study questions:
How do state MEP grantees and local/regional subgrantees identify, recruit, and prioritize migratory children for services?
How does the Migrant Student Information Exchange (MSIX) system facilitate the transfer of educational and health information to support enrollment, placement, and accrual of credits for migratory children?
What services do state MEP grantees and local/regional subgrantees provide to migratory children?
How do state MEP grantees and local/regional subgrantees collaborate with other programs and organizations to deliver services to migratory children?
Pathway Schools Initiative: Fundamental evaluation summary
This report summarizes the progress made by the schools that participated in the Pathway Schools Initiative through the 2017–18 school year on a fundamental set of outcome indicators: continuity in the PreK–3 enrollment pipeline, literacy instructional practices, teaching quality, effective school leadership, and student reading achievement.
Issue brief: Academic support classes
In 2015–16, the high school graduation rate reached a record high of 84 percent (U.S. Department of Education 2017). Despite the gains, over half a million students still drop out of high school each year (U.S. Department of Education 2015). High schools have adopted various strategies designed to keep students who are at risk of not graduating in school and on track for earning the credits required to graduate. “At-risk” students are defined as those failing to achieve basic proficiency in key subjects or exhibiting behaviors that can lead to failure and/or dropping out of school. Dropout prevention strategies are diverse; they vary in type of program, services offered, frequency, intensity, and duration of contact with target students.
The U.S. Department of Education (Department) sponsored the National Survey on High School Strategies Designed to Help At-Risk Students Graduate (HSS), which aimed to provide descriptive information on the prevalence and characteristics of dropout prevention strategies for at-risk students. The survey collected data in the 2014–15 school year from a nationally representative sample of 2,142 public high schools and focused on 13 specific high school improvement strategies1 identified by a panel of external experts and senior Department officials. All findings are based on self-reported data from school principals. This brief on academic support classes is the twelfth in a series of briefs with key findings about these high school improvement strategies.
A comprehensive model of teacher induction: Implementation and impact on teachers and students evaluation of the New Teacher Center’s i3 validation grant, final report
SRI Education’s evaluation of the New Teacher Center’s (NTC’s) Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation grant examined the impact of the NTC induction model on teacher practice and student achievement. To account for different local contexts and needs, the study used randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in two districts—Broward County Public Schools and Chicago Public Schools—and a quasi-experimental design in Grant Wood Area Education Agency, a consortium of districts in Iowa. In the RCT districts, the study found positive impacts of the induction model on student achievement in English language arts and mathematics. The study found no statistically significant differences between NTC-supported teachers and comparison teachers on teacher practice measures or on teacher retention into their third year of teaching.
However, the high implementation fidelity levels and contrasts in induction experiences between treatment and comparison teachers indicate that the NTC induction model can be implemented well in a range of district contexts.