http://www.sedl.org/new/ Your source for news about SEDL projects and resources en-us Copyright 2013 SEDL Wed, 15 May 2013 11:28:48 CDT http://www.sedl.org/common/images/sedl-logo-ffffff.jpg http://www.sedl.org/new/ 101 24 SEDL carries out an integrated program of education applied research and development, information provision, technical assistance, and professional development to improve teaching and learning for all students. http://www.sedl.org/about/successstory/20130424_320.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/about/successstory/20130424_320.html Implementing new standards is an immense task. District and school leaders must align curriculum, instruction, and assessments to the standards and ensure teachers understand the new requirements and modify their lessons to teach to them. In New Mexico, our Center is partnering with the Pecos Valley Regional Education Cooperative to build leadership capacity in five districts for managing this task. SEDL consultants are providing a series of 2-day sessions for superintendents, administrators, principals, and teacher leaders. A major focus is on our Professional Teaching and Learning Cycle. Using this process, teams collaborate to study the standards, develop related lessons and assessments, and examine evidence of student learning to assess teachers' efforts. At the sessions, interactive learning experiences, such as modeling and role-playing activities, enable participants to see practices in action. This approach has sparked several aha moments as a leader suddenly grasps a concept. Other activities incorporate resources leaders can use to build understanding, reinforce learning, and dig deeper. For instance, our Common Core math videos help leaders unpack complex standards for teachers. As follow-up, SEDL consultants check in monthly to review progress and provide coaching. Several principals were surprised to discover curriculum and instruction were not well aligned at their schools. Now, they report having in-depth meetings with teacherssome for the first timeabout instruction, lesson plans, and the new standards. For more information, please contact SEDL program director Robin Jarvis at robin.jarvis@sedl.org or at 800-476-6861, ext. 6510 or 225-257-4986. Center for High-Performing Schools: Turnaround Team Our Turnaround Team is led by two former principals who have turned schools around. They draw on this experience as they work with educators to develop solutions grounded in the realities of practice. Don Doggett, MEd, used multiple strategies to turn around a South Carolina elementary school. He applied curriculum mapping to align instruction, launched a literacy plan, established professional learning communities, and held weekly data meetings with instructional coaches and teachers to review progress and needs. Sylvia Pirtle, PhD, targeted literacy to boost student outcomes at a Texas elementary school. Using multiple sources of data, Pirtle and the instructional coaches continuously reviewed student progress and set up systems of support to ensure that struggling readers received effective instruction and interventions. Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/about/successstory/20130424_323.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/about/successstory/20130424_323.html CTE classes prepare adolescent students for careers ranging from auto repair and nursing to graphic design and polymer science. But many students are not prepared for the highly demanding technical content in CTE texts. What's more, CTE instructors often have no formal training in building students' literacy and comprehension skills. To address this issue, our Southeast Comprehensive Center partnered with the Mississippi Office of Career and Technical Education in 2010 to develop a coaching initiative to strengthen literacy support in CTE classes. Through summer institutes, webinars, videos, and on-site visits, teams from CTE centers learn how to integrate research-based literacy strategies aligned with the Common Core State Standards into their content areas. To promote sustainability, teams share the strategies at their centers, and select participants are recruited as mentor trainers in the program. Of the state's 89 CTE centers, 12 have participated in the pilot so far, with 30 planned for 20122013. The literacy strategies equip students to access and engage a variety of complex texts they may encounter later on the job. That's the purpose, says Ramona Chauvin, a SEDL program associate and the lead trainer for the pilot. We are helping students become independent users of strategies for accessing information. Narleski Young and other participating CTE teachers are enthusiastic. Early trends show improved score averages for content-area pre- and post-assessments. Teachers also note that students are far more engaged, talking about the strategies in class and even with other teachers. As one eager student queried, Are you gonna teach all of this stuff to my other teachers? For more information, please contact SEDL project director Beth Howard-Brown at beth.howard@sedl.org or at 803-936-0752. Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/about/successstory/20130424_322.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/about/successstory/20130424_322.html Cullman County Schools, like all school districts, needs to ensure that improvement efforts produce gains in teaching and student outcomes. Through our Center for High-Performing Schools, district and campus leaders are learning evaluation methods for guiding and assessing their efforts while cultivating the conditions for change. Since August 2012, SEDL consultants have been working on site with leadership teams one week a month to model and scaffold evaluation techniques and tools. The support has focused on the Alabama Strategic Teaching Framework, a K12 initiative promoting instructional strategies that foster literacy and active learning. With SEDL's assistance, central office staff are developing an evaluation plan to guide the initiative. This plan clarifies activities and roles, sets benchmarks and goals, and identifies formative and summative measures to assess the initiative's effectiveness. To build formative evaluation skills, SEDL is also showing administrators how to seed change with the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM). This set of diagnostic tools enables leaders to manage and monitor a program in a way that shares ownership among staff and is sensitive to their needs. Using CBAM, administrators, principals, and teachers collaborated to set expectations for the new initiative. Other CBAM tools are helping administrators tap into teachers' attitudes about the initiative and the extent to which teachers are using it. With this information, leaders can provide the specific support needed to stay on track. District and campus leaders are already working more cohesively and developing a comprehensive picture of their progress. From Butler's perspective, her team is gaining valuable skills for managing programs and measuring whether their efforts are effectivedefinitely a change for the better. For more information, please contact SEDL project director Erin McCann at erin.mccann@sedl.org or at 800-476-6861, ext. 6535. Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/about/successstory/20130424_324.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/about/successstory/20130424_324.html In 2012, our Texas Comprehensive Center (TXCC) partnered with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to develop Stepping Stones: A Texas Migrant Early Childhood Program for 3- and 4-Year-Olds. This free home-based program provides the state's migrant coordinators and home educators with research-based materials aligned with the latest Texas prekindergarten standards. Available in English and Spanish, the program includes 100 lessons in 10 units, with a heavy emphasis on language and literacy development. Many of the lessons feature children's literature as well as strategies parents can use when reading to their children to build their vocabulary and comprehension. In addition, a manual guides migrant coordinators and home educators in effectively implementing the program. The TXCC team worked with TEA staff in both the federal programs and curriculum divisions to organize and facilitate the planning, development, training, and pilot for Stepping Stones. This work provided assistance in statewide coordination and key expertise in early childhood education and curriculum development. Stepping Stones empowers migrant parents to become their child's first teacher. With initial guidance from a home educator, parents learn everyday activities they can do to help their children build literacy and language skills and develop a solid foundation in learning, even while on the road. For more information, please contact SEDL project director Edward Tobia at ed.tobia@sedl.org or at 800-476-6861, ext. 6560. Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/about/successstory/20130424_325.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/about/successstory/20130424_325.html Ensuring that research leads to practices, products, and policies that benefit people with disabilities requires intentional effort. Our new KTDRR Center provides services and resources to make relevant and high-quality disability and rehabilitation research easier to find, understand, and use. The center serves multiple clients, including researchers and developers as well as people with disabilities and their families, advocates, service providers, educators, employers, and policymakers. To make existing research more accessible, KTDRR staff provide tools and training for synthesizing and sharing research findings across multiple studies. We want to ensure that disability professionals look at all of the evidence, not just the results of one study, before making research or health care decisions, says John Westbrook, director of the center. Westbrook hopes that better use of existing evidence will result in more effective practices and better options for people with disabilities. The center also identifies and promotes knowledge translation (KT) processes that target the awareness, understanding, and use of evidence-based knowledge and products. For instance, the center provides webcasts on KT strategies, such as strategies for developing effective practice guidelines for service providers and translating evidence into policies. The center also works with a Consumer Review Panel to ensure that information is accessible and addresses consumers' needs. SEDL brings extensive experience in the area of disability research to its work at the center. In addition, staff collaborate with selected national and international partners, including world leaders in improving the visibility and use of research evidence: the Campbell Collaboration, the Cochrane Collaboration, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre. For more information, please contact John Westbrook, director of the KTDRR Center, at john.westbrook@sedl.org or at 800-476-6861, ext. 6565. Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/about/successstory/20130424_326.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/about/successstory/20130424_326.html SEDL conducts randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the gold standard in research on intervention effectiveness, to provide rigorous evidence of programs and practices that promote learning. In 2012, we completed a Striving Readers RCT for the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE). The 2-year experimental trial assessed the implementation and effectiveness of Voyager Passport Reading Journeys, a widely used supplemental program for adolescents reading 2 or more years below grade level. The program is used in more than 500 school districts nationwide. SEDL collaborated with LDOE, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Voyager to develop and implement a rigorous study design across 10 middle schools. More than 1,200 struggling readers in grades 6 and 7 participated. Researchers randomly assigned students to one of two groups for the 20102011 school year. The team then used mixed methods to collect fall baseline data and spring follow-up data on student reading performance and motivation as well as teacher implementation. Overall findings were positive, showing the program improved student reading performance relative to other supplemental programs or electives. In particular, the program boosted reading comprehension and vocabulary, and 7th graders and boys experienced greater gains. However, the program had no effect on student motivation or engagement in reading. The findings provide reliable evidence that educators can use to guide their decisions when choosing a program to support struggling readers. And for teens who labor to decipher the words on a page, better support opens the way to success. For more information, please visit www.sedl.org/re/. You may also contact Michael Vaden-Kiernan, SEDL director of Research and Evaluation, at michael.vaden-kiernan@sedl.org or 800-476-6861, ext. 6562. Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/new/article/20130115_318.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/new/article/20130115_318.html SEDL has been awarded a contract to assist the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and its 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) programs in delivering high-quality afterschool programming. During the contract, SEDL will provide technical assistance and professional development to Illinois 21st CCLCs. SEDL will also assist ISBE in developing a quality assessment process and creating and managing a peer advisor network. We are eager to have SEDL as the ISBE's new technical assistance provider for 21st CCLCs, says Marci Johnson, Division Supervisor of ISBE's College and Career Readiness Division. SEDL has many years of experience with afterschool programs and 21st CCLCs. Their expertise will provide ISBE with the opportunity to continue the services we have been providing to the grantees and to move us forward on new initiatives. The 21st CCLCs are charged with providing academic enrichment opportunities during non-school hours, particularly for students who attend high-poverty and low-performing schools. In addition to helping students master core academic subjects, 21st CCLCs can also provide opportunities for students to participate in youth development activities. SEDL has been a national leader in the field of afterschool programs for more than a decade, says SEDL president and CEO Wes Hoover. We are pleased to continue working in the field of afterschool and building on our relationship with the 21st CCLC programs in Illinois. Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/new/article/20121120_317.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/new/article/20121120_317.html According to MLive Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal says she is proposing more kindergarten through eighth-grade schools for Grand Rapids to ensure students are on target for college and career readiness before high school, and to respond to parent requests. SEDL program director Robin Jarvis weighed in on the topic. "The model allows you to better align your curriculum and instruction," said Jarvis. "Teachers can work better collaboratively across the full span of a child's elementary and middle years, which is more challenging when located on two different sites. Families get to stay in the school for a longer period of time, creating community schools and more involved parents." Read the entire article. Tue, 20 Nov 2012 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/new/article/20121030_319.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/new/article/20121030_319.html Concepción Molina remembers the first time his elementary school teacher gave the class a column of numbers and asked them to add them up. He followed the directions and wrote the answer at the top. When I was done, my teacher told me that I was supposed to write the answer at the bottom of the column, not the top, he says. I still remember wondering why I was asked to add the numbers up if I was supposed to write my answer at the bottom. Shouldn't that be adding down? Since Spanish was the primary language spoken at his home, Molina learned math and English at the same time and often noticed these linguistic inconsistencies as his education continued. Molina went on to become a high school math teacher and then pursue an Ed.D. in educational leadership. His experience and work encouraged him to focus on the role of language and symbolism in learning and understanding mathematics. The result is his book, The Problem With Math Is English: A Language-Focused Approach to Helping All Students Develop a Deeper Understanding of Mathematics. The book explores math concepts through the lenses of language and symbolism and aims to give teachers the tools to help students understand mathematical concepts at a deeper level. Molina challenges beginning and veteran educators alike to think about how language like the bigger half (in fractions) or how many times does 2 go into 8 (in division) can confuse students. At a time when business leaders are calling for better math skills among workers in many industries while many students are still struggling to master simple mathematics concepts, Molina offers a refreshing perspective on effective mathematics instruction: keep it simple yet deep, think about the language you're using, and make sure students develop a real understanding of the concept rather than memorize an algorithm. Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/new/article/20121015_316.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/new/article/20121015_316.html Molina shows teachers that there are inherent problems with the way language, representation and symbols are used in teaching and learning mathematics and offers a new, language-focused approach. He does this by providing the tools needed to help students understand the underlying concepts of math. Published in partnership with Jossey-Bass and with editorial support from SEDL communications associate Joni Wackwitz, the book illustrates conceptual-level mathematics by using a multitude of perspectives. It illustrates the importance of language, symbolism, and representation in a way that enables teachers to use this knowledge to deepen the level of their students' understanding. Through purposeful problems and activities, The Problem with Math emphasizes major attributes of conceptual understanding, offers simple yet deep definitions of key terms, and provides an insightful interpretation of mathematics. I've seen math frustrate so many students, especially English Language Learners, says Molina. I wanted to give teachers a new approach because traditional instruction does not focus on math as a unique language that any student can learnstudents just need the proper guidance. Mon, 15 Oct 2012 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/new/article/20121010_315.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/new/article/20121010_315.html Austin, TX, October 11, 2012 Does light energy always travel in a straight line? How does sound travel? How do swings on the playground represent mechanical energy? These are just a few of topics explored in the Grade 3 Unit of Mosaic: An Integrated Approach to Mathematics, Science Technology, and Language. The problem-based K5 instructional program created by SEDL gives students a chance to explore their world while building academic language, math, science, and technology skills and increasing their conceptual understanding of these subjects. Mosaic supports learning by using real-life scenarios that make math and science exciting and relevant for students, said SEDL chief program officer Vicki Dimock. Built upon SEDL's successful Paso Partners curriculum, the precursor to this program, Mosaic provides rigorous lessons and resources that integrate science, technology, and mathematics academic skills. The program also includes linguistic accommodations for English learners. Learning strategies include pair share, vocabulary building, and modeling. The integrated instructional strategies save classroom time and may be used in other subject areas. These lessons are models. We hope that teachers will use the lessons, integrate them into their curricula, and then develop their own lessons following the model, said Dimock. It is a great opportunity for teachers to partner with one another across content areas in order to strengthen their ability to build academic language, which is critical for English learners. Lessons are in both English and Spanish. Mosaic lessons are free and can be found at http://www.sedl.org/pubs/mosaic/. The Mosaic Project was made possible through a grant from the Sid W. Richardson Foundation of Fort Worth, Texas. Since 1947, the Foundation has generously supported education, healthcare, human services, and culture in Texas. Wed, 10 Oct 2012 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/new/article/20121001_314.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/new/article/20121001_314.html SEDL has obtained funding for innovative technical assistance and school improvement work in 6 states. The awards to serve as the Texas and Southeast Comprehensive Centers (CCs) will enable SEDL to continue collaborating with education leaders in these states to address challenges such as college and career readiness, teacher evaluation systems, Common Core State Standards, and improvement efforts for low-performing schools. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, these 5-year, $8 million grants will encompass work in Texas, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Mississippi, with the last 5 states composing the Southeast CC. SEDL will partner with RMC Research Corporation for both the Texas and Southeast CCs and will also work with the American Institutes for Research for the Southeast CC. We are looking forward to continuing our work with these state departments of education, said SEDL President and CEO Wes Hoover. We have strong ties with these states, helping education leaders navigate research and data to make the best decisions for students in their state. We've been doing this work for nearly 50 years, and it is gratifying to have our federal partners acknowledge our expertise in these areas. Work in the Texas CC will focus on partnering with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) in designing, piloting, and scaling up of both teacher and leader effectiveness systems; developing, testing, and refining an accountability system for educator preparation programs; aligning teacher certification standards to the new Texas college and career readiness standards; facilitating work of two statewide advisory groups focused on school support and family and community engagement; supporting TEA and the Education Service Centers in implementing the Texas Student Data System; and developing a community of practice addressing young children's school readiness and early school success. SEDL staff will be assisting the Southeast CC states with implementing and scaling up the Common Core State Standards and aligned assessments; creating regional communities of practice addressing young children's school readiness and early school success; and assisting four states with establishing and scaling up performance management systems to monitor the implementation and progress of improvement efforts in low-performing schools. State specific work includes assisting Alabama in the implementation of Plan 2020, the state's new education reform strategic plan; working with the Georgia Department of Education on the development and implementation of college and career pathways; working with the Mississippi Department of Education to develop a plan for a comprehensive early childhood strategy for the state; supporting North Carolina in developing training, tools and other resources to support schools in using ACT Program assessment data in organization and planning for instruction; and assisting South Carolina in strengthening their charter school application process and developing charter school startup and leadership training. Mon, 01 Oct 2012 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/new/article/20120820_305.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/new/article/20120820_305.html SEDL has been awarded a 5-year, $3.75 million federal grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research to operate a new national project, the Center on Knowledge Translation for Disability and Rehabilitation Research. The center will promote the use of relevant and high-quality disability and rehabilitation research. There is already an overwhelming amount of disability research, but researchers and practitioners don't always have the time to review all of the studies related to their work, says John Westbrook, principal researcher for the study. To address this problem center staff will work with National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) grantees to facilitate the creation of research syntheses and summarizing research through an established procedure called a systematic review. We want to ensure that disability researchers look at all of the evidence, not just the results of one study before making research or health care decisions. Westbrook hopes that better use of existing research will result in more effective practices and better options for people with disabilities. The center also aims to help NIDRR researchers find ways to ensure that disability practitioners use research findings. In the past researchers would complete a study and publish the information, but there was a missing piece, says Westbrook. Now we ask, 'How can we ensure that research is actually used so that it benefits people with disabilities?' SEDL will achieve this by working with four international partners that are world leaders in improving the visibility and use of research evidence: the Campbell Collaboration, the Cochrane Collaboration, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordinating Centre. The center will build on SEDL's already extensive work in the area of disability research. We are pleased to receive this grant so we can continue to ensure what we know from disability research reaches intended audiences, is understood, and then used to benefit individuals with disabilities, said SEDL president and CEO Wes Hoover. The center's work will impact how research evidence is identified, how policy is created, and how disability research is ultimately used. Mon, 20 Aug 2012 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/new/article/20120809_297.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/new/article/20120809_297.html Our Research and Evaluation group has received funding from the U.S. Department of Education to study the effects of a reading and a math program for children in kindergarten to fifth grade. We need your help to prepare our research staff in administering math and reading assessments. We are looking for kindergarten aged students to administer the assessments for practice. Your child will receive the following: $10 gift card to Target The opportunity to select a toy to take home Activities will be provided for children while they wait; however, parents will need to stay with their child at all times. Register your child to be at SEDL on Friday, August 17, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. by contacting Amanda Frenzel at (512) 391-6555 or amanda.frenzel@sedl.org. Be sure to your register your child before all of our slots are full! To learn more about the study, visit research.sedl.org/ocr-em. Thu, 09 Aug 2012 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/new/article/20120807_304.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/new/article/20120807_304.html The purpose of the study is to document the employment-related needs of people with cancer. We will use our findings to help employers, healthcare providers and other people with cancer to be more aware of cancer survivors' employment-related needs and how to address them. All personal data collected from participants is confidential and NO employers will be identified in published reports. Please e-mail dbtac@sedl.org or call 1-800-476-6861 and ask for Kathleen Murphy. All participants are offered a Target gift card. The Southwest ADA Center is funded by the federal Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) and is based at TIRR Memorial Hermann's ILRU (Independent Living Research Utilization) program. For more information about the Southwest ADA Center, visit www.southwestada.org. This research project is in collaboration with SEDL, a non-profit educational research organization based in Austin. Tue, 07 Aug 2012 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/new/article/20120806_303.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/new/article/20120806_303.html Neuroscience has shown that brain development has a direct impact on children and adolescents' behavior, gradually allowing for the maturation of brain areas responsible for impulsive behavior, rational thought and emotional maturity. Such faculties are critical for learning and therefore children need to be exposed to learning situations and materials that are optimal for their developmental stage, says Tolentino in the article. Mon, 06 Aug 2012 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/new/article/20120730_302.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/new/article/20120730_302.html Michael Davis, a trusted adviser and friend to SEDL, passed away on July 18, 2012, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Michael was known for his commitment to both his family and public education. Michael served on the SEDL board of directors from 1997 to 2003, including serving as board chair from 2001 to 2002. Michael then became a long-term consultant to SEDL's program staff, board, and president and CEO in 2004. Michael was born and raised in Ames, Iowa. After serving with the Peace Corps in Columbia for 2 years, he relocated to Las Cruces, New Mexico, and joined the federal Teacher Corps. Michael remained in New Mexico, earning a master's degree in bilingual education from New Mexico State University and an education specialist degree in school administration from the University of New Mexico. Michael worked for several years in the Chama Valley Independent School District and joined the New Mexico Department of Education in 1984. He served as state superintendent of public education from 1997 through 2003. Michael influenced and inspired children and educators alike and always kept service and children first and foremost in his thoughts. At SEDL, Michael worked with staff on state policy development and implementation issues, particularly those addressing low-performing districts and schools. He advised the SEDL board on work with state departments of education and issues of board operations. He also served as an executive coach to SEDL's president and CEO, focusing on program development, staffing, operations, leadership, and governance. In all of these endeavors, his special strengths were engaging people to work together to solve complex problems. We offer our condolences to Michael's family, especially his wife, Karen, and his three children, Jonathan, Jessup, and Addie. Memorial donations can be made to Partners in Education Foundation for the Santa Fe Public Schools in Michael's name. Articles and Obituaries for Michael Davis Santa Fe New Mexican article Santa Fe New Mexican obituary Albuquerque Journal article Mon, 30 Jul 2012 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/new/article/20120614_301.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/new/article/20120614_301.html Recruit highly qualified staff. Experienced teachers from local schools are well qualified to lead academic activities and may best know students and their learning needs. High school and college students, parents, and community members can serve as staff or volunteers, and they bring a range of experience and skills to program activities. Summer program leaders will also want to allocate resources for meaningful professional development. For free online professional development resources for extended learning staff, see our Afterschool Training Toolkit and accompanying instructor's guides. Student attendance and engagement are crucial. This principle is so obvious it's often overlooked: to benefit from summer learning programs, students need to enroll and regularly participate in engaging enrichment activities. Plan and promote your program early, before families have made other plans for the summer. Considering the needs of working parents by offering day-long programming may also boost student attendance. High-quality instruction and individualized connections with students will also boost attendance and engagement. Staff who work with the same students during the school year can build on relationships during the summer program. Offer a variety of activities that address different learning needs and try to make sure that each activity has an appropriate staff-to-youth ratio. Engage family and community members. When parents are involved in their children's education, the students are more likely to experience improved attendance and higher academic achievement. Hosting events like parent orientation sessions and open houses that feature student work or performances can pique parent interest, and scheduling these events to accommodate parents' schedules and providing on-site child care for family events can encourage attendance. In addition to involving parents, consider reaching out to community-based organizations that offer programs and activities to complement your summer learning program. For a summary of research on how family and community engagement can impact student achievement, see our popular research synthesis A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement. Form strong relationships with schools. Schools staff can help identify and recruit students to participate in programs and also provide crucial academic information. They can also help ensure that summer learning activities are aligned with standards and curricula. As the summer learning program concludes, remember to share information about students' summer progress with their schools. Summer vacation often evokes images of relaxation and fun. An effective summer learning program can ensure that students still enjoy those aspects of their summer break while returning to school in the fall ready for the challenges of the new school year. Sources McCombs, J. S., Augustine, C. H., Schwartz, H. L., Bodilly, S. J., McInnis, B., Lichter, D., & Cross, A. B. (2011). Making summer count: How summer programs can boost children's learning. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG1120.html Wimer, C., & Gunther, R. (2006). Summer success: Challenges and strategies in creating quality academically focused summer programs. Issues and Opportunities in Out-of-School Time Evaluation, No. 9. Retrieved from http://www.hfrp.org/out-of-school-time/publications-resources/summer-success-challenges-and-strategies-in-creating-quality-academically-focused-summer-programs Thu, 14 Jun 2012 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News) http://www.sedl.org/new/article/20120320_298.htmlhttp://www.sedl.org/new/article/20120320_298.html Gold Standard Research in the Real World Both Imagine It!, an Open Court reading program, and Everyday Mathematics are widely used curricula. Researchers have conducted small-scale effectiveness studies on the individual programs, and separate findings indicate that each program has a positive impact on student achievement. Building on these findings, the SEDL study is the largest and most rigorous of its kind and will evaluate how these two programs affect teacher practices and student achievement over a 3-year period. So far, 20 schools in 4 districts are participating in the study. SEDL expects to have 40 additional schools join the study this year. Districts offer a variety of reasons for participating in the study. Gary Jones, superintendent at Rapides Parish School District in central Louisiana, was familiar with both Imagine It! and Everyday Mathematics before he learned about SEDL's effectiveness study. He wanted to learn more about the programs. One of the things about textbook adoption is you get a cursory look at [the program], explains Jones. A lot of times, the decision as to which program to adopt is based on the skill of the [textbook company's] presenter. . . . You only really find out how good those programs are when you actually put them into practice. He saw his district's participation as an opportunity to have a few schools try the programs before committing his district's funds to buying new books for all of the Rapides Parish schools. Jones also believes that educators should contribute to the development of new research so they can ultimately make more informed decisions about what will benefit their students. There's kind of an obligation for school districts to do those kinds of things [participate in effectiveness studies] so that you don't depend on the skill of the salesman in making the purchase, he says. If more research is available, you have some sort of ability to sort through the data and find out what works and what doesn't. For many districts, the most compelling incentive to join the study is financial. As districts across the country continue to face budget cuts, participating in an effectiveness study like SEDL's offers a way for schools to obtain badly needed instructional resources and professional development. Old and out-of-date curricula pose an even bigger problem when they are not aligned with the most recent standards. In 2010, Kentucky adopted the Common Core State Standards. Teachers began to provide instruction related to the standards in 2011, and students will be assessed on them beginning in Spring 2012. The newly adopted standards left teachers scrambling to fill instructional gaps because their old reading or math curriculum was not aligned with the new standards. There are new assessments coming up, and there were gaps [in the old curriculum], explains Phillip Birchfield, principal at Mullins, which is using the Imagine It! reading program as part of the study. The [reading] books were 7 years old. . . . That was a scary thing. Both Imagine It! and Everyday Mathematics are aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Kendra Staton is a first-grade teacher at Southside Elementary School, another Pike County school participating in the study. Southside was assigned Everyday Mathematics for the 3-year study, and Staton says she finds it easier to cover the standards with the new curriculum. In the program we used before, . . . there were gaps, she explains, noting that the old curriculum did not cover some topics included in the standards, like the concept of time. We had to pull those things in ourselves. This program [Everyday Mathematics] seems to have everything. I have not seen any gaps yet. From the Researcher's Perspective Schools that joined the study were randomly assigned to Imagine It! reading or Everyday Mathematics to use as their core curriculum for that subject. They then received textbooks, ancillary materials, teacher's guides, and access to online resources for their assigned program. They also received training to launch their assigned program and will receive three follow-up training sessions from a McGraw-Hill representative for each year of the study. Shortly after schools began using their new curricula, SEDL researchers arrived to begin data collection. Twice a year, the researchers test students in both reading and math, regardless of which program a school is using. Researchers will also survey students to learn more about student motivation and engagement in reading and math. Finally, researchers will collect data about student attendance, placement and referral, and retention. Both Imagine It! and Everyday Mathematics have built in strategies and resources that are intended to help teachers meet all students' educational needs, explains Sarah Caverly, the SEDL project director involved in the study. By looking at special education referrals and placements, we can try to understand whether the programs impact those objectives. To learn how Imagine It! and Everyday Mathematics affect teachers' instructional practices, SEDL researchers will collect data from teachers and administrators through video-recorded classroom observations and teacher and administrator interviews. Classroom observations will help us understand what the delivery of these programs really looks like, says Michael Vaden-Kiernan, who is director of research and evaluation at SEDL and the principal investigator of the study. Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:00:00 CDT info@sedl.org (SEDL News)