Eps 1: information dissemination of outcomes-based education and materials development
— Information dissemination of outcomes-based education and materials development
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Sonia Duncan
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As with medicine, developers and researchers would be held to rigorous standards for evidence, but if they design programs that meet those higher standards, they can feel assured that their programs would be widely adopted, and would indeed be making a difference for students. Before deploying their programs, developers must be able to demonstrate that their models are evaluated, and are more effective than those used by prospective adopters . It will benefit program developers to clearly develop mini-experiences or modules that will enable potential adopters to assess and experience the program, with explicit descriptions of how the modules are implemented and assessment tools. The challenge at present is describing key elements of a distribution model that will increase the likelihood of potential adopters to adopt a given program.
Evaluations of educational and dissemination programs can be done for a variety of reasons, at many scales, and the results can be used by different interest groups--including a review of a project from the top down, an assessment of the efficacy of specific materials or methods, measures of student learning, the long-term effects of the program, confirming that a projects goals were met. Assessment activities can also result in wider-ranging studies about the projects being studied. Schools and districts will need support for new types of assessments that can document the quality of new course materials, evaluate their effective use, and gauge teachers professional development needs for knowledge and practice in content areas. There must be plans for sustained use of the professional development materials beyond the project, and to communicate the proposed materials to teachers educators in order to promote integration in teacher preparation programs.
Program funds are used throughout the country to conduct flexible professional development activities that meet local needs related to instructional practices, curricula, and students learning styles. Part of the school reform effort, the Eisenhower professional development programs are designed to equip predominantly mathematics and science teachers with skills and knowledge that will help students achieve challenging education standards. These goals are accomplished by supporting development, modification, evaluation, and distribution of materials and assessments that inform instructional decisions and provide insight into students deep understanding of concepts and ideas. Areas for Research The primary focus of the IMD Program is on developing and disseminating materials and assessments in science, technology, and mathematics instruction, as well as conducting research on their efficacy.
TESTING PROJECT SPECIFICATION Credible assessments of student learning are essential to determine the effects of educational reforms, to provide feedback to the development of instructional materials, and to understand the effects and impacts of new curricula on students learning and performance. The assessment contractors synthesized existing research on teacher teaching to develop innovative measures of quality teacher professional development activities, and the characteristics of instructional strategies designed to promote higher-order thinking in students. The evaluation contractor then compared teachers reported teaching practices prior to and following professional development activities with the assessors, in order to evaluate changes in the main dimensions of quality. The National Evaluation sought to determine if and how Eisenhower-supported activities, which comprised the largest Federal effort dedicated to supporting teacher professional development, contributed to the nations efforts to improve schools and helped meet agency goals.
An alternative assessment approach recognized the importance of linking message distribution to other activities in a comprehensive program design, and assessed outcomes from combined activities. The Every Student Succeeds Act courageously defined strong, moderate, promising, and weak levels of evidence for education programs, and required that programs that met one of strong be used for some federal funds, particularly for funding school improvement in low-performing schools.
We shall define evidence that is evidence-based, meaning that it has been collected, reviewed, and presented by evidence developers, and has been used in making recommendations. As noted in the far left-hand side box, we plan to explore studies that have used research-based evidence as the information source for their communications strategies and dissemination strategies . By assessing the comparative effectiveness of communication techniques and dissemination strategies, this systematic review will inform efforts to facilitate easy access to research by patients and clinicians.
In this study, innovation was the novel approach--WTL--that required use of technology, and that challenged the ways that teachers and school leaders thought about teaching and learning practices in transformative ways. Providing complementary resources on evidence, such as ways that evidence might be integrated into existing practices, or concrete suggestions for changes, augments a traditional dissemination strategy. Provisioning supports how-to materials, including tangible materials that could be used in a practice to implement the evidence. Supporting how-to materials may also include tailored toolkits explaining evidence implementation in a particular context. The resources listed below are not exhaustive, but they should give you sufficient supporting information to assist in developing relevant evaluation activities within your project.
We have focused on three approaches to accountability that are being attempted more frequently in developing countries: the generation and distribution of information, devolution of decision-making to the school level, and the incentive for teachers efforts and achievement. Barbara Brunners, Harry Patrinos, and I recently published a book, "Making Schools Work," which reviews the evidence of recent impact evaluations of reforms aimed at increasing accountability. In this fictional future, schools choosing programs on the basis of valid evidence means publishers, software companies, professional development companies, researchers, and program developers--as well as governments--will engage in an ongoing process of creating, evaluating, and deploying new approaches in each subject and grade level.