Effects of Using Spanish-Speaking Staff to Adapt Home Visits on the Language and Literacy Development of Spanish-Speaking Children
This research study is examining the short term effects of Spanish-language home based early lite... more This research study is examining the short term effects of Spanish-language home based early literacy skills in pre-school aged Hispanic children enrolled in Head Start Home Visiting programs in rural south central Minnesota during the 2006-2007 school year. Head Start is a nation wide, government funded program for pre-school aged children from low income families, operating to better prepare and facilitate children\u27s readiness for school. In this study a group of approximately 40 children was given exams to measure oral language and early literacy skills in both English and Spanish. These children received weekly home visits from Spanish-speaking paraprofessionals who conducted early literacy activities in Spanish. The paraprofessionals are employed through Head Start and are supervised in the homes by an English-speaking Head Start home licensed visitor. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of using a Spanishspeaking paraprofessional in pre-school aged children\u27s educational development and school preparedness, and to determine whether or not children\u27s literacy skills are higher with Spanish visitors versus those children that just have English-speaking home licensed visitors. This project is important because the Latino population continues to increase and our schools are becoming more diverse, bringing with them the many challenges of language barriers. We need to continue to find solutions to help Latino students better adapt in the classroom, obtain academic achievement levels similar to those of native English-speaking students, obtain high school graduation rates similar to national rates, and to help Latinos become independent, self reliant, and productive members of our society
Teaching program evaluation: How blending theory and practice enhance student-evaluator competencies in an education policy graduate program
Evaluation and Program Planning
Harris, Douglas N. (2011) Value-added measures in education: What every educator needs to know. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press
La investigación de los Modelos de Valor Agregado (MVA) para las políticas educativas: Delimitando la discusión
This publication is provided free of cost to NEPC's readers, who may make non-commercial use of i... more This publication is provided free of cost to NEPC's readers, who may make non-commercial use of it as long as NEPC and its author(s) are credited as the source.
At the time of this study, the Texas Value-Added Assessment System (TxVAAS) was being piloted thr... more At the time of this study, the Texas Value-Added Assessment System (TxVAAS) was being piloted throughout Texas to hold teachers more accountable for their effects on students' achievement (i.e., teachers' value added). It is still being used by districts throughout Texas today. Using a framework informed by the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, researchers conducted a content analysis of the marketing and research-based claims asserted about the TxVAAS, to (a) examine the "truth" of each claim to (b) help others critically consume the marketing claims using (c) nonproprietary, peer-reviewed literature. Given that the more popular, and also proprietary version of the TxVAAS-the Education Value-Added Assessment System-continues to be sold and marketed to other states and districts in similar ways, researchers deemed it critical to intervene before other states and districts might blindly trust the marketing and research-based claims presented.
El sas sistema de evaluación de la educación de valor agregado (sas ® evaas ®): Algunos efectos intencionales y no intencionales en un sistema escolar urbano de gran tamaño
The Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) loosened the federal policy grip over states’ teacher acco... more The Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) loosened the federal policy grip over states’ teacher accountability systems. We present information, collected via surveys sent to state department of education personnel, about all states’ teacher evaluation systems post–ESSA, while also highlighting differences before and after ESSA. We found that states have decreased their use of growth or value-added models (VAMs) within their teacher evaluation systems. In addition, many states are offering more alternatives for measuring the relationships between student achievement and teacher effectiveness besides using test score growth. State teacher evaluation plans also contain more language supporting formative teacher feedback. States are also allowing districts to develop and implement more unique teacher evaluation systems, while acknowledging challenges with states’ being able to support varied systems, as well as incomparable data across schools and districts in effect.
Everything is bigger (and badder) in Texas: Houston’s teacher value-added system
Teachers College Record, 2016
In this commentary, authors discuss the Houston Independent School District's (HISD) highest-... more In this commentary, authors discuss the Houston Independent School District's (HISD) highest-stakes use of its contracted value-added system (i.e., the Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS)) to reform and improve student learning and achievement throughout the district's schools. Authors situate their discussion within a related report on the recent release of Houston Superintendent's own evaluation scores. Authors also situate their discussion within the evidence, as per the recent release of the state's large-scale standardized test scores. Authors assert that, perhaps, attaching high-stakes consequences to teachers' value-added output in Houston is not working as intended.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) recently initiated multiple, one-year, school immersion program... more The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) recently initiated multiple, one-year, school immersion programs to help 25,000 KSA teachers better support KSA students and the KSA education system after spending time abroad in teacher education programs throughout the United States (US). This study explored the effects of one such program, aimed at helping KSA teachers become agents of change. The authors examined how the 46 KSA teachers involved in this program changed. Survey-research and English language tests were used to show that the immersion program yielded its desired effects: the program increased teachers' sense of efficacy; improved teachers' pedagogical, content, technical, and English language skills; and enhanced teachers' understandings of education across nations and cultures, with emphasis on the transfer of features of the US educational system back to the KSA (although teachers were uncertain about the extent to which the transference desired might actually occur). Via supplemental interviews, the authors also identified self-reported influential sources of change. The article examines how these sources of change impacted KSA teachers' mindsets regarding their teaching. The study confirms that the program influenced participants through their school immersion experiences, given that the program offered KSA teachers chances to learn more about student-centered learning approaches and more customized and individualized care for students.
Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 2014
Background Within the last few years, the focus on educational accountability has shifted from ho... more Background Within the last few years, the focus on educational accountability has shifted from holding students responsible for their own performance to holding those shown to impact student performance responsible—students’ teachers. Encouraged and financially incentivized by federal programs, states are becoming ever more reliant on statistical models used to measure students’ growth or value added and are attributing such growth (or decline) to students’ teachers of record. As states continue to join the growth and value-added model movement, it is difficult to find inclusive resources documenting the types of models used and plans for each state. Objective To capture state initiatives in this area, researchers collected data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia to provide others with an inclusive national growth and value-added model overview. Data yielded include information about the types of growth or value-added models used in each state, the legislature behind ea...
education policy analysis archives A peer-reviewed, independent, open access, multilingual journa... more education policy analysis archives A peer-reviewed, independent, open access, multilingual journal epaa aape
Interactions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 2014
For the first time in history, many states, districts, and administrators, are now required to ev... more For the first time in history, many states, districts, and administrators, are now required to evaluate teachers by methods that are up to 50% based on their “value-added,” as demonstrated at the classroom-level by growth on student achievement data over time. In this critical literature review, the authors use a three-tier framework to review VAM-based literature, reports, and U.S. education policies to examine this controversial topic of teacher evaluation that continues to sweep the nation. The authors argue that, given the current problems with VAMs in terms of reliability, validity, bias, and fairness, as well as the lack of evidence that previous accountability policies have worked to alleviate the root causes of low educational quality, it is hard to make a legitimate claim that VAM-based teacher evaluation policies will work in their intended ways.
Mapping America’s teacher evaluation plans under ESSA
Phi Delta Kappan
In 2016, the federal government proposed and adopted the Every Student Succeeds Act, which retrac... more In 2016, the federal government proposed and adopted the Every Student Succeeds Act, which retracted the federal government’s prior control over states’ teacher evaluation systems, permitting more local control. Kevin Close, Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, and Clarin Collins collected information from states to determine the degree to which states were shifting away from the value-added models (VAMs) that were ascendant under No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top and to understand what kinds of evaluation methods they are employing instead. States do appear to be moving slowly away from VAMs, continuing to use teacher observations, and incorporating student learning objectives as growth measures. Local control and more formative use of teacher evaluations also appear to be on the rise.
Mapping America’s teacher evaluation plans under ESSA
Phi Delta Kappan
In 2016, the federal government proposed and adopted the Every Student Succeeds Act, which retrac... more In 2016, the federal government proposed and adopted the Every Student Succeeds Act, which retracted the federal government’s prior control over states’ teacher evaluation systems, permitting more local control. Kevin Close, Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, and Clarin Collins collected information from states to determine the degree to which states were shifting away from the value-added models (VAMs) that were ascendant under No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top and to understand what kinds of evaluation methods they are employing instead. States do appear to be moving slowly away from VAMs, continuing to use teacher observations, and incorporating student learning objectives as growth measures. Local control and more formative use of teacher evaluations also appear to be on the rise.
The SAS Educational Value-Added Assessment System (SAS® EVAAS®) is the most widely used value-add... more The SAS Educational Value-Added Assessment System (SAS® EVAAS®) is the most widely used value-added system in the country. It is also self-proclaimed as “the most robust and reliable” system available, with its greatest benefit to help educators improve their teaching practices. This study critically examined the effects of SAS® EVAAS® as experienced by teachers, in one of the largest, high-needs urban school districts in the nation – the Houston Independent School District (HISD). Using a multiple methods approach, this study critically analyzed retrospective quantitative and qualitative data to better comprehend and understand the evidence collected from four teachers whose contracts were not renewed in the summer of 2011, in part given their low SAS® EVAAS® scores. This study also suggests some intended and unintended effects that seem to be occurring as a result of SAS® EVAAS® implementation in HISD. In addition to issues with reliability, bias, teacher attribution, and validity, high-stakes use of SAS® EVAAS® in this district seems to be exacerbating unintended effects.
Education Policy Analysis Archives Archivos Analiticos De Politicas Educativas, Oct 27, 2014
This study examined the SAS Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS®) in practice, as perc... more This study examined the SAS Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS®) in practice, as perceived and experienced by teachers in the Southwest School District (SSD). To evaluate teacher effectiveness, SSD is using SAS EVAAS® for high-stakes consequences more than any other district or state in the country. A mixed-method design including a large-scale electronic survey was used to investigate the model's reliability and validity; to determine whether teachers used the SAS EVAAS® data in formative ways as intended; to gather teachers' opinions on SAS EVAAS®'s claimed benefits and statements; and to understand the unintended consequences that occurred as a result of SAS EVAAS® use in SSD. Results revealed that the reliability of the SAS EVAAS® model produced split and inconsistent results among teacher participants, and teachers indicated that students biased the SAS EVAAS® results. The majority of teachers disagreed with the company's marketing claims and did not report similar SAS EVAAS® and principal observation scores, reducing the criterion-related validity of both measures of teacher quality. Many unintended consequences associated with the high-stakes use of SAS EVAAS® emerged through teachers' responses, which revealed among others that teachers felt heightened pressure and competition, which reduced morale and collaboration, and encouraged cheating or teaching to the test in attempt epaa aape Education Policy Analysis Archives Vol. 22 No. 98 2 to raise SAS EVAAS® scores. The results of this study, one of the first to investigate how the SAS EVAAS® model works in practice, should be considered by policymakers, researchers, and districts when considering implementing the SAS EVAAS®, or any value-added model for teacher evaluation.
Background: Within the last few years, the focus on educational accountability has shifted from h... more Background: Within the last few years, the focus on educational accountability has shifted from holding students responsible for their own performance to holding those shown to impact student performance responsible—students' teachers. Encouraged and financially incentivized by federal programs, states are becoming ever more reliant on statistical models used to measure students' growth or value added and are attributing such growth (or decline) to students' teachers of record. As states continue to join the growth and value-added model movement, it is difficult to find inclusive resources documenting the types of models used and plans for each state.
Uploads
Papers by Clarin Collins