NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
ERIC Number: ED498175
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2003
Pages: 43
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Schools Attuned. Program Evaluation 2003: The Report Card Study
Ort, Suzanne Wichterle
All Kinds of Minds
This document reports on a study funded by the Nash Family Foundation designed to assess the impact of participation in the Schools Attuned professional development program on Jewish Day School educators. Participants in this study took part in a 35 hour course and 10 hours of post course follow up, related to the Schools Attuned approach to addressing student learning differences. The focus of the study was the effect of the Schools Attuned course on teachers' written records of student progress. Specially, the study sought to address the question of whether the Schools Attuned training is evident in how teachers write about their students in yearly, bi-annual, or trimester report cards. For the purposes of this study, report cards became a proxy for the implementation or integration of Schools Attuned ideas and strategies into teacher practice. To determine whether the course impacted teachers' written reports of student progress, report cards of teachers were sampled prior to the course and then again in the year following the course. Using a specifically designed customized rubric, experienced Schools Attuned facilitators blindly scored the pre- and post-course report cards. Report cards were scored on a continuum of one (lowest) to four (highest) in terms of the extent to which they revealed knowledge of or experience with Schools Attuned ideas in three articulated dimensions (tone, focus on strengths, and collaborative stance). The results of this study demonstrate the positive impact of the Schools Attuned course on the quality of teacher narrative report cards about student progress. The average score of the teachers' pre-course report cards was 1.99; for the post-course group of report cards, the average score was 2.16. In addition to an increase in the average score, the number of performance level 3 and 4 report cards increased in the "post" group of report cards, while the number of level 1 and 2 report cards decreased. When score patterns are analyzed by teacher, 56% of the individual teachers who participated in the study demonstrated improvement in the average score reflected on their report cards after course participation. The following are appended: (1) Schools Attuned Rubric for Narrative Report Cards; and (2) Benchmark Report Cards. (Contains 6 tables.) [This report was produced by All Kinds of Minds, Chapel Hill, NC. Research was funded by the Nash Family Foundation.]
All Kinds of Minds. 1450 Raleigh Road 2nd Floor, Chapel Hill, NC 27515. Tel: 888-956-4637; Web site: http://www.allkindsofminds.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A