A key component of the McKnight Foundation’s Education and Learning (E&L) Program is supporting PreK–3 teachers to improve their literacy instruction in order to develop proficient readers.
Literacy and language arts publications
Evaluating the Impact of Professional Development to Meet Challenging Writing Standards in High-Need Elementary Schools: Executive Summary
The adoption of the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts (CCSS-ELA) has brought a new prominence to writing instruction. Additionally, the CCSS-ELA increase the focus on argument and informational/explanatory writing. To facilitate elementary teachers’ transition to this new emphasis on writing in general, and argument and informational writing specifically, the National Writing Project was awarded a 1-year U.S. Department of Education Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grant. This grant enabled the National Writing Project to provide intensive, sustained in-service professional development to high-need elementary schools focused on CCSS-ELA implementation in third, fourth, and fifth grades. SRI conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial to estimate the effects of the SEED professional development on teachers’ writing instruction and student argument writing, while documenting the implementation of the SEED program and the contexts in which the program was executed. This executive summary describes SRI’s findings.
Teaching and Assessing Foundational Data Literacy
It is in the public interest for the citizenry to be more data literate. A more data literate citizenry is likely to be a more informed citizenry, and an informed citizenry is more likely to make the informed decisions on which a democracy depends. The availability of data tools and authentic data-based web sites provides this opportunity. Educational researchers can study how the classroom can be utilized to provide students with skills for understanding data structures, interpreting data representations, and analyzing authentic data. Our paper describes two NSF-funded research and development projects, Thinking with Data and Foundational Tools in Data Literacy, which have studied how school cultures, course content, and instructional methods can be adapted to enable the achievement of these goals. The paper describes:
• what transpired in the implementation of units that were developed to meet this research goal,
• what methods were used to assess students’ abilities to apply their data literacy skills and understandings to near-transfer tasks, and
• what the results of the assessments suggest to be instructional enablers of effective implementation
Though not the subject of this paper, SRI’s research in this area is continuing in the new NSF-funded Data Sets and Inquiry in the Geosciences project (DIGS), for which units and assessments are being developed and piloted that immerse students in inquiry tasks that draw from publicly available data sets about earthquakes and climate change.
Evaluating the Impact of Professional Development to Meet Challenging Writing Standards in High-Need Elementary Schools
The adoption of the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts (CCSS-ELA) has brought a new prominence to writing instruction. Additionally, the CCSS-ELA increase the focus on argument and informational/explanatory writing. To facilitate elementary teachers’ transition to this new emphasis on writing in general, and argument and informational writing specifically, the National Writing Project was awarded a 1-year U.S. Department of Education Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grant. This grant enabled the National Writing Project to provide intensive, sustained in-service professional development to high-need elementary schools focused on CCSS-ELA implementation in third, fourth, and fifth grades. SRI conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial to estimate the effects of the SEED professional development on teachers’ writing instruction and student argument writing, while documenting the implementation of the SEED program and the contexts in which the program was executed. This report describes SRI’s findings.
The Use and Effectiveness of a Question Exploration Routine in Secondary-Level English Language Arts Classrooms
This purpose of the study was to determine the effects of teachers using the Question Exploration Routine (QER) in regularly scheduled secondary-level English Language Arts classes to help students answer questions about the development and use of main ideas in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Questions were posed in both multiple-choice and written formats. On average, students representing diverse groups who received instruction with the QER correctly answered a significantly higher percentage of total questions than students receiving traditional lecture-discussion instruction (effect sizes were very large). Results are reported for total scores, subscores of multiple-choice and written responses, and for responses of subgroups of students. Students’ mean satisfaction and confidence responses are reported.
National Evaluation of Writing Project School Partnerships – Final Report (Executive Summary)
Final report on SRI’s examination of the effects of Writing Project partnerships on teacher practices and student writing. The cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) included a multimethod study to document how partnerships were developed and implemented in participating schools and sites.
National Evaluation of Writing Project School Partnerships – Final Report (with Appendices)
Final report on SRI’s examination of the effects of Writing Project partnerships on teacher practices and student writing. The cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) included a multimethod study to document how partnerships were developed and implemented in participating schools and sites.
National Evaluation of Writing Project School Partnerships – Final Report (without Appendices)
Final report on SRI’s examination of the effects of Writing Project partnerships on teacher practices and student writing. The cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) included a multimethod study to document how partnerships were developed and implemented in participating schools and sites.
Behavior Problems in Learning Activities and Social Interactions in Head Start Classrooms and Early Reading, Mathematics, and Approaches to Learning
A series of multilevel models examined the unique contribution of early problem behavior in structured learning activities, peer interactions, and teacher interactions.