Out of the Tower, Into the Schools: How New IES Goals Will Reshape Researcher Roles

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Out of the Tower, Into the Schools How New IES
Goals Will Reshape Researcher Roles

• John Q. Easton
• AERA 2010 Conference
• Presidential Session
• May 2, 2010

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Kenwood Academy High School

• High-poverty school on Chicagos Southside
• Silver Medal School US News and World Report
• Freshman On-Track Rate Up 20 points
• About 90 percent of students say school does a
  good (or better) job with academic rigor and
  supportive staff

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• Each Week of Absence in the Ninth Grade Is
  Associated With a Dramatically Reduced Likelihood
  of Graduating

SOURCE Consortium on Chicago School Research,
What Matters, 2007.
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Only Students Who Exceed Standards on Their
Eighth-Grade ISAT Math Tests Have at Least a 62
Chance of Scoring 20 on Their ACT
SOURCE Consortium on Chicago School Research,
Path to 20, 2008.
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ACT Success Good Grades, Not Test Practice

• Two Key Findings
• Students made smaller gains from the PLAN to the
  ACT the more their teachers spent class time on
  test practice and used materials from test-prep
  companies
• Regardless of whether students start with high or
  low test scores, those who earn As and Bs in
  their classes make big gains in a short period of
  time. Juniors who barely pass with Cs and Ds
  either make no progress in their scores (moving
  from the PLAN to ACT), or fall behind.

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Five Key Themes Covered

• Make our work more relevant and useful
• Study schools as organizations
• Create new measures and expand repertoire of
  rigorous methodologies
• Deepen understanding of teaching quality
• Train new generation of researchers

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NAEP Math Report Explaining Student Performance
in Key Content Area
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Boston Public Schools and Harvard Partners in
Fixing Vocabulary Challenge
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Students Who Were Accepted Into a 4-year College
Were Much More Likely to Enroll if They
Completed the FAFSA
SOURCE Consortium on Chicago School Research,
Potholes, 2008.
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Data Wise Improvement Process Eight Steps for
Using Test Data to Improve Teaching and Learning
SOURCE Data Wise, Harvard Education Press, 2005.
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Coming Soon From NCEE The Evaluation of Charter
School Impacts

• First large-scale randomized controlled trial of
  charter schools with lotteries in multiple states
• Weighs in on relevant research debate Whether,
  how, and under what circumstances charter schools
  improve the outcomes of students who attend them
• Correlational analysis by length of school
  day/school year, enrollment, autonomy,
  student-teacher ratio, ability grouping,
  concentration of poverty, average student
  achievement levels, locale (urban, rural, etc.),
  autonomy, revenues, management, and years
  operating

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Relationships of Essential Supports With
Improvements in Value-Added, 19972005
Essential Support Effect of strength in base year Effect of improvement
School leadership
Instructional leadership .18 .10
Program coherence .15 .10
Parent community ties
Parent involvement in the school .34 .14
Professional capacity
Reflective dialogue .03 .02
Collective responsibility .22 .11
Orientation toward innovation .21 .08
School commitment .29 .15
Student-centered learning climate
Safety .43 .17
SOURCE Organizing Schools for Improvement
Lessons From Chicago.
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Predicting Achievement Short Grit Scale by
Duckworth et al.

• I am a hard worker.
• I often set a goal but later choose to pursue a
  different one.
• I have been obsessed with a certain idea or
  project for a short time but later lost interest.
  
• I finish whatever I begin.
• Setbacks dont discourage me.
• I am diligent.
• New ideas and projects sometimes distract me from
  previous ones.

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New Roles for Researchers in Action-Oriented
Partnerships

• Balance long-term knowledge with providing
  service to districts
• Design studies and refine research questions
  rather than create questions.
• Understand how to speak, write and present to
  audience of practitioners and policy makers.
• Use descriptive data to reveal practices and
  outcomes in useful ways.
• Build a theory of action around the topic of
  concern.
• Consider the interconnectedness of classroom,
  school and district relationships when creating
  interventions.