Pennsylvania’s Early Childhood Data Systems: History, Uses & Opportunities

This report provides a comprehensive summary of Pennsylvania’s efforts to develop and integrate early childhood data systems. There is evidence that Pennsylvania’s data systems have created efficiencies and cost savings, and have enabled quality improvements in ways that otherwise would not have been possible. Although progress has been made, PA is still developing strategies for data use and has many opportunities to leverage existing data to further inform strategic investments, drive program integrity, guide supports for early childhood professionals, and support program accountability. This report outlines the history, uses and opportunities for Pennsylvania after ten years of system work

The i3 Validation of SunBay Digital Mathematics

Decades of research have emphasized the need for engaging, accessible ways to help students learn fundamental mathematical concepts. Research also shows that teacher beliefs about teaching and learning have an outsized influence on the quality and effectiveness of curricular interventions. This article reports results of an independent evaluation of the i3 implementation of SunBay Digital Mathematics, a middle-school math intervention, and examines the program’s impacts on both student progress and teachers’ beliefs about math instruction. Prior studies have demonstrated the efficacy of SunBay Math for students of varied levels of prior achievement. This independent evaluation included a randomized controlled trial in 60 Florida middle schools during the 2015-16 school year and a mixed-methods implementation study. No impact on student achievement was observed overall; however, the evaluation did reveal positive impacts on teachers’ classroom practices and beliefs about the use of technology in math instruction. Inadequate implementation of instructional units and lack of impact on teachers for targeted beliefs about math instruction likely contributed to lack of overall program effects

ECDataWorks Data Story Activity Guide

Learning from data is not easy. Developing data stories can support data use among stakeholders at the state and local levels. This resource is intended to support stakeholders working in small groups to develop data stories requiring integrated early childhood data, but can support planning for the use of other types of data as well. The goal of this activity is to engage stakeholders and build a shared understanding of data needs and uses through facilitated conversations

School Leadership, Teachers’ Roles in School Decisionmaking, and Student Achievement

This working paper summarizes the results of a study of leadership in elementary and secondary schools. The study focused in particular on instructional leadership – the extent to which school leaders focus on the core activities of teaching and learning – and teacher leadership – the extent to which teachers have input into school decision-making. This paper is drawn from the full report of the study, entitled School Leadership Counts (Ingersoll, Dougherty and Sirinides 2017), available at www.newteachercenter.org

Leadership Matters: Teachers\u27 Roles in Decision Making and School Performance

Given the prominence of both instructional leadership and teacher leadership in the realms of school reform and policy, not surprisingly, both have also been the focus of extensive empirical research. But there have been limits to this research. It is, for example, unclear which of the many key elements of instructional leadership are more, or less, likely to be adopted in schools across the nation. Similarly, it is unclear which of these elements are more, or less, beneficial for school performance and for student learning and growth. Likewise, though the extent of teacher involvement in school decision making has been widely studied, there has been almost no solid empirical research on whether teacher leadership is beneficial for student learning and growth. These topics are the subject of a study the authors undertook, which this article summarizes

Reading Recovery: An Evaluation of the Four-Year i3 Scale-Up

CPRE released its evaluation of one of the most ambitious and well-documented expansions of a U.S. instructional curriculum. The rigorous independent evaluation of the Investing in Innovation (i3) scale-up of Reading Recovery, a literacy intervention for struggling first graders, was a collaboration between CPRE and the Center for Research on Education and Social Policy (CRESP) at the University of Delaware. The CPRE/CRESP evaluation revealed that students who participated in Reading Recovery significantly outperformed students in the control group on measures of overall reading, reading comprehension, and decoding. These effects were similarly large for English language learners and students attending rural schools, which were the student subgroups of priority interest for the i3 scale-up grant program. The study included an in-depth analysis of program implementation. Key findings focus on the contextual factors of the school and teachers that support the program’s success and the components of instructional strength in Reading Recovery

TASK: A Measure of Learning Trajectory-Oriented Formative Assessment

This interactive electronic report provides an overview of an innovative new instrument developed by CPRE researchers to authentically measure teachers’ formative assessment practices in mathematics. The Teacher Analysis of Student Knowledge, or TASK, instrument assesses mathematics teachers’ knowledge of formative assessment and learning trajectories, important components of the instructional knowledge necessary to teach to the high expectations of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Researchers found that the majority of teachers of mathematics in grades K-10 in urban and urban fringe districts focused on their students\u27 procedural skills rather than their conceptual understandings, indicating that there is significant room for growth in teacher capacity to identify, interpret, and respond to students\u27 conceptual understanding

The Impact of the GE Foundation Developing Futures in Education Program on Mathematics Performance Trends in Four Districts

Beginning in 2005, the GE Foundation initiated a commitment of expertise and financial resources to a set of urban school districts to improve public education and enhance student achievement in mathematics and science. With strong emphasis on stakeholder engagement, the GE Foundation’s Developing FuturesTM in Education program pursued a strategy of: (1) facilitating school board, union, and district leaders to work together to articulate system goals and priorities; (2) helping district leaders to build systemic change processes and develop internal-management capacity; and (3) supporting district science and mathematics initiatives through materials alignment, coaching, professional development, and other capacity-building measures. This report analyzes the impacts of the GE Foundation commitment to the partner districts by examining trends in student performance in mathematics over time in four districts. We hypothesized that the GE Foundation’s collaborative efforts with the district educators would produce detectable and significant improvements in student outcomes

An Inquiry into Pennsylvania\u27s Early Childhood Quality Rating and Improvement System

High-quality care in the earliest years of life has been shown to relate to positive developmental outcomes for children, including improved early academic skills, social-emotional competencies, and cognitive functioning. Unfortunately, the early care experiences of many children are not always high quality; rather, research suggests that high-quality care is the exception. The growing evidence relating quality care to improved learning outcomes, the variability in quality across care settings, and the failure of existing approaches to improve child care have led to a national call to enhance the quality of early care and education programs. In response to this call, states have created Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRISs)