Recently Completed Projects
GEAR UP
UC ESC has been conducting the evaluation of the State of Ohio Gaining Early Awareness for Undergraduate Program (GEAR UP) initiatives since 1999. The GEAR UP state initiatives in Ohio have been funded under the leadership of the Ohio Board of Regents. These initiatives help students from middle school through high school graduate from high school and pursue college educations. Primary project activities focus on providing professional development to teachers and support for students to improve academic performance. Other project activities revolve around providing students and parents with necessary information about college scholarships and financial aid. The Ohio GEAR UP initiative is now in its second round of funding (2005); in this round, funding was expanded to eight new sites and 19 additional schools. Program evaluation results from the first round of funded GEAR UP initiatives were used as a guide in programming the second round.
Ohio WINS
Since 2004, the ESC has been conducting a multi site evaluation of the Ohio Writing Institute Network for Success (OhioWINS), which provides quality, standards-aligned professional development for elementary through high school English Language Arts (ELA) teachers at ten institutions of higher education across Ohio. Created by the Ohio Board of Regents and funded by the State of Ohio, OhioWINS gives teachers the tools they need to enhance students' writing skills, thus preparing students for the challenges of higher education and reducing the need for remedial English coursework that is both expensive and time-consuming.
The 2004-2006 evaluation (available at http://www.ohiorc.org/ohiowins/) employed a theoretical-based logic model and national standards for quality professional development to (a) frame data gleaned from three waves of teacher surveys and program description information from Institute faculty and (b) provide program development recommendations for Institute faculty and the Ohio Board of Regents. Findings indicate that this professional development program for teachers of writing:
- Helps teachers master pedagogical content knowledge and feel better prepared to teach writing;
- Improves teachers' instructional practices, including greater emphasis on Ohio ELA Standards;
- Helps teachers influence whole-school change in teaching writing;
- Conforms to recognized "best practices" for teacher staff development;
- Improves student writing
Future evaluation activities for the OhioWINS project will include in-depth case studies that document participating teachers' professional development experiences at the Institute and follow participating teachers back to the classroom to assess (a) teachers' capacity to translate content into effective classroom instructional practice; (b) school culture as a support mechanism for conveying new concepts in teacher learning and instructional practice; and (c) the effect of OhioWINS on student writing proficiency. The ESC is also discussing the possibility of conducting a quasi-experimental study of the program using state-wide student achievement data.
State Institute for Reading Improvement (SIRI)
SIRI is a statewide professional development program in literacy instruction for Ohio teachers sponsored by the Office of Literacy in the Ohio Department of Education. SIRI provides teachers with foundational knowledge and research-based strategies for literacy instruciton through four focused institutes: Pre-K/K (7 topical modules), Focus on the First R (K-3), Diagnostics and Lesson Design, and Adolescent Literacy. Since its inception, SIRI has been conducted primarily as a face-to-face professional development model. In 2007-2008, the SIRI model will begin to transition to a blended e-learning delivery model. The ESC has been the external evaluator for SIRI since March 2004. Evaluation activities include observation of SIRI instructor training and SIRI professional development institutes, pre-post knowledge assessment of SIRI participants, surveys of instructors and participants, and case study follow-up in selected participants. The emphasis on data collection and reporting is to document SIRI's impact of educator knowledge, skills, and practice in literacy instruction, and to identify areas for programmatic and curricular improvement in the SIRI model.
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