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The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) has released a new quick review of the report “Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Final Report”. This study examines whether winning a lottery for the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which offers vouchers to students to attend private schools, improved low-income students’ reading and math achievement and their probability of graduating from high school. The study found that winning a lottery for a private school scholarship did not have statistically significant effects on reading and math achievement. However, students who won the scholarship lottery were significantly more likely to graduate from high school: 82% for the group that won the lottery compared with 70% for the group that lost the lottery, an effect size of 0.26. Similar results were found for the subset of students attending schools designated as “in need of improvement” under the No Child Left Behind Act when they applied for a scholarship. Winning the lottery did not have a statistically significant effect on reading.
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Rapidly improving technology is changing everyday life for all generations. This constantly changing environment can be a difficult adjustment for older generations. However, for the current generation known as “Generation Y”, this sense of constant technology adaption isn’t an adjustment; it is a way of life. A University of Missouri researcher says a widening gap is occurring between educators and students due to the difference in how older and younger generations approach evolving technologies. Newton D’Souza, an assistant professor of architectural studies at MU, is looking for ways to move beyond traditional teaching methods and to bridge the technology gap between teachers and students.
“In a traditional educational model, learning only occurs in the classroom,” MU researcher Newton D’Souza said. “Now, with technology like laptops and mobile phones, learning can occur anywhere from classrooms to hallways to coffee shops. For older generations, technology is a separate fixture. For Generation Y, it’s a part of their lives. On one hand, it is exciting; on the other hand, it challenging because we must find ways to adjust teaching styles.”
Researchers at the University of Missouri are studying ways to integrate technology into design learning, specifically to learn how to teach children design basics. In an effort to study how children who have grown up in a wired, video game culture use technology, D’Souza engaged young students using a 3D virtual reality platform to teach design. Using a popular existing virtual reality platform called 2nd Life, researchers directed students to design a small zoo. The zoo project involved a topic that young students could relate to, while providing adequate research restraints.
The 2nd Life platform provided a realistic 3D spatial simulation for students to explore. They were given instructions on certain design specifics and then allowed to work within the simulation. By studying how the students worked within the virtual reality platform and their eventual design product, D’Souza was able to observe the improvement of specific design skills.
D’Souza found that students working within the 3D virtual reality environment tended to improve spatial skills, including kinesthetic and logical abilities. However, verbal and intrapersonal skills seemed to suffer. He attributed this mixed result as a lesson to constantly work on creating better interfaces for today’s learners. D’Souza also was surprised to find how quickly the students grasped the virtual reality concept and were able to begin working with it.
“Because they are wired in media, the kids entered into the system much faster than we expected,” D’Souza said. “Today’s students already exist in a 3D environment; we need to find a way to teach them where they already are.”
Ultimately, D’Souza says that because each individual learns differently, new media technologies like the 2nd Life platform will teach researchers even more about how students learn. He believes it is important to continually question the assumptions about how humans learn.
“Right now we are failing to communicate with younger children,” D’Souza said. “Learning is effective when previous assumptions are questioned, and nothing is taken for granted. It’s not that we should entirely abandon our traditional teaching techniques; we need to consolidate what we have, and yet improvise to meet the needs of current day learners.”
This study was published in the Journal of Design Studies. Newton D’Souza is an assistant professor of architectural studies at the University of Missouri where he teaches design studio and environment behavior and design research. He has an academic and professional background as an architect and design researcher in the United States, Singapore, and India. During the past 10 years, intrigued by his own experience as an architect, he has conducted research in design process, learning environments, creativity research, and the use of new media in design education. His team at the i-Lab facility in architectural studies department at MU is conducting further research in this area through grants secured from MU Research Board and Mizzou Advantage initiatives.
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A new report from the National Research Council offers a framework for evaluating the effects of a 2007 reform law on the District of Columbia's public schools. The evaluation program must include systematic yearly public reporting of key data as well as in-depth studies of high-priority issues, such as teacher recruitment and retention, the report says. As part of the evaluation program, the Mayor's Office should produce an annual report to the city on the status of the public schools, including an analysis of trends and all the underlying data.
The evaluation program should be structured to provide ongoing, independent monitoring and feedback on a number of key aspects of D.C.'s public education system, which are described by the committee that wrote the report. "Although the immediate goal for the District is to evaluate the changes enacted in 2007, we also see an opportunity to build a continuing program of analyses that will be useful regardless of future political or personnel changes," said Christopher Edley, committee co-chair and dean of the School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.
In 2007 the Public Education Reform Amendment Act (PERAA) shifted control of D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) from an elected school board to the mayor and created the position of chancellor, among other changes. The act also mandated an independent five-year evaluation to determine whether enough progress has been achieved to warrant continuation of the new structure. The D.C. City Council asked the Research Council to provide guidance on how to structure the evaluation and to offer initial feedback about implementation of PERAA, to the extent possible.
Report Offers First Impressions, With Cautions
The report offers some first impressions of school reform under PERAA and notes that the city and DCPS have made a good-faith effort to implement the required changes, but the committee cautions that it is premature to draw general conclusions about the reforms' effectiveness at this time.
Data suggest that a modest improvement in student test scores has continued since PERAA was enacted. However, the report stresses that scores on their own cannot identify the reasons for that improvement. Further examination is necessary to determine whether they can be linked to the reforms or are the result of other factors, such as demographic changes in D.C.'s highly mobile student population. Also, because the rising scores are averages, further analysis and monitoring are needed to determine how various subgroups of students -- such as particular grade levels or students in particular areas -- are faring; some could be making gains while others are not.
The report emphasizes that student test scores should not be the only factor used to judge improvement in the school system. A comprehensive evaluation should address the full range of district responsibilities: quality of teachers, principals, and other personnel; quality of classroom teaching and learning; capacity to serve vulnerable children and youth; promotion of family and community engagement; and quality and equity of operations, management, and facilities.
Although the committee found that the administrative and governance changes required by PERAA have generally been carried out, the report notes that the Office of the Ombudsman was defunded three years after its creation. Since the office was intended to be the primary channel for parents to communicate with school officials and seek redress for complaints, its absence is significant, said the committee.
Evaluation Program Should Be Long-Term, Independent
The report offers a framework for evaluating key elements of reform under PERAA that affect student outcomes -- including management structures and roles and conditions for learning -- as well as the student outcomes themselves.
A set of specific, measurable indicators should be established as soon as possible, building on suitable indicators already collected in the District, the report says. These would track how well the city's public schools are doing, how well the key strategies the city has chosen to improve education are working, the conditions for student learning, and the capacity of the system to produce valued outcomes.
In addition, in-depth studies should be designed to provide deeper analysis of specific questions about high-priority issues, including both the targets of PERAA and long-standing challenges in District schools, such as special education. These studies can answer questions about the causes of trends seen in indicator data, explore potential reasons for disappointing outcomes, provide information to help alter existing strategies, or help explain why some strategies appear to be working better in some schools than in others. They are key, the report notes, because they are the means by which evaluators can answer policymakers' questions about the effects of particular policies and practices.
To develop and sustain an infrastructure for ongoing research and evaluation of its public schools, D.C. will need to engage local universities, philanthropic organizations, and other institutions, the report says. The program must be independent of school and city leaders and responsive to the needs of all stakeholders, and its research should meet the highest standards for technical quality. There is no one model for the city to follow, but examples of research and evaluation programs that have been created in other cities -- such as Chicago, New York City, and Baltimore -- could be useful as D.C. develops its own program, the report notes.
"An independent evaluation program that can be an ongoing source of objective information and analysis will be an invaluable resource for the city," said committee co-chair Robert Hauser, executive director of the National Research Council's Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. "There are no quick answers. Education reform itself is a long-term process, and the evaluation of its outcomes also has to be seen in the long term."