Data Deep Dive #1: Supporting Effective Educator Development Grant from the U.S. Department of Education
In 2015, The Institute for Excellence in Education was part of a team of educators that received the Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grant. IEE and its Focused Instructional Model took the lead on the math side of the Power of Two project, which was an initiative of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform. The Power of Two provided students with a paired intervention experience in English Language Arts and mathematics classrooms. The purposeful pairing of these subject areas addressed the need for students to make rapid academic growth in a short period of time (one school year).
6th and 7th grade teachers in Michigan (multiple districts), North Carolina (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools), Illinois (Chicago Public Schools), and California (Moreno Valley School District) received training and coaching around the Focused Instructional Model. There was a robust data collection component of the SEED project – a randomized controlled trial (RCT) was spearheaded by the Center for Prevention Research and Development (CPRD) from the University of Illinois. Using a treatment vs. control study, data was collected from 53 classroom pairs across the 4 states, with 1,095 students involved in the study.
Treatment students that used the Focused Instructional Model for one year in classrooms where the model was implemented with high fidelity showed statistically significant greater math achievement than students in control classrooms. These students were more likely to initiate positive interactions with each other, were more motivated to do well in school, held higher academic expectations, lower negative mindset, and lower disruptive behavior when compared to students in the control classrooms.
The project team was encouraged and excited to see these results after only one year of implementation of the Focused Instructional Model. During the second year of the study, control classes received the FIM training and coaching. Data is still being examined but the outlook is positive. Positive results from this study resulted in other schools and grade levels in these four states adopting the Focused Instructional Model in hopes of replicating these increases in student achievement.
Upgrading Math Class Series:
Introduction
Difficulty #1 – Information Retention
Difficulty #2 – Targeted Intervention
Difficulty #3 – Providing Social-Emotional Learning
Difficulty #4 – Safe Learning Environments
Difficulty #5 – Effective Teacher Training
Difficulty #6 – Appropriate Differentiation
Data Deep Dive #1
Data Deep Dive #2
Data Deep Dive #3
