Description of Project:

The eMINTS (enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies) Validation Project is a study of the impact of the intensive eMINTS professional development (PD) program on more than 240 teachers and 10,800 students across seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms in 60 rural Missouri middle schools. The official project partner is the New Franklin R-I School District. New Franklin is a small rural district that has successfully implemented eMINTS across multiple grade levels since 2006 and will serve as a mentor/exemplar for participating districts. The project's goal is to validate the effectiveness of eMINTS PD in helping teachers translate standards and information from assessments into classroom practices that employ technology and support learning for all students. eMINTS PD is innovative because it is one of the few PD programs with data to support the chain of evidence from delivery of a specific PD program to changing teacher practice to positively impacting student achievement. The project has the potential to leverage existing technology investments that many districts already have made by corroborating a PD program that can take full advantage of these investments to increase students' college and career readiness.

Traditional eMINTS PD provides teachers with more than 250 hours of PD spanning 2 years and with support that includes monthly in-classroom coaching visits. In refining and improving eMINTS PD, eMINTS staff integrated an Intel® Teach program (Thinking with Technology), adding a third year of PD. The third year expands teachers’ abilities to use project-based learning, giving them access to Intel's suite of online tools designed to involve students in higher-order thinking and problem solving. Technology resources in eMINTS classrooms include a SMART Board (interactive whiteboard), teacher laptop, printer, digital camera and at least one computer for every two students. Software is limited to productivity software; eMINTS PD and the required technology create classrooms that equip students with 21st century college- and career-readiness skills.

Based on the results of this study and subsequent program adjustments, eMINTS plans to scale to new sites through a train-the-trainer program that has already been demonstrated to result in successful program implementation in nine states and in New South Wales, Australia. Project success will be measured by significant changes in teachers' practices that are reflected in significant, positive changes in student achievement in language arts and mathematics as well as in 21st-century skills.

Description of Evaluation:

This evaluation is a random control trial in which 60 rural schools are randomly assigned to one of three groups: a traditional eMINTS PD intervention, a traditional eMINTS PD intervention plus an additional year of Intel Teach, and a control group. Confirmatory questions are (1) What is the impact of eMINTS PD on students' performance in mathematics and language arts? and (2) Does eMINTS + Intel Teach result in greater impact on students' performance in mathematics and language arts relative to eMINTS PD and to control? Additional exploratory questions on student outcomes (e.g., 21st-century skills) and teacher practice outcomes (e.g., inquiry-based instruction) will be examined.

Description of Project:

Improving Educational Outcomes for American Indian Children will replicate a program called BabyFACE, the evidence-supported, home-based services of the successful Family and Child Education (FACE) program, in 22 Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools. BabyFACE will serve high-needs American Indian families with children ages prenatal to 3 years living in the catchment areas of BIE schools. Services to families will include home visits, routine health and developmental screenings for the children, parent group meetings, and resource referrals as needed. Families will receive weekly or biweekly visits from certified parent educators. BabyFACE is innovative in that it breaks the intergenerational cycle of illiteracy that is a problem among many American Indian tribes; utilizes a home-visiting strategy to address geographic isolation, which is a barrier to early childhood education; and integrates tribal languages and culture. The need for early education and child development services is largely unmet in the American Indian population. This project will help meet that need.

The Parents as Teachers National Center, in partnership with BIE and the 22 partner schools, will identify, train and provide regular and ongoing technical assistance to 42 parent educators as they implement the BabyFACE model. Each of the 22 partner BIE schools will serve 30-48 families (36-48 children), with an annual minimum of 720 families. Some families will have more than one age-eligible child. The projected number of children to be served annually is between 800 and 1,152.

The project goals are to narrow the achievement gap between American Indian and non-American Indian children at kindergarten entry and to improve student achievement in reading and math through third grade. Project objectives are as follows: (a) early identification of health and developmental issues and referral for intervention to address any delays, (b) an increase in parental knowledge of child development, (c) an increase in access to literacy resources in the home, (d) an increase in literacy activities, (e) an increase in parents’ involvement in their children's education and (f) an increase in school readiness. Anticipated outcomes are (a) fewer special education services (b) parents utilizing effective child management techniques and having age-appropriate expectations for their children, (c) the presence of more books and preliteracy materials in the home, (d) parents spending more time on literacy activities with their children, (e) parents attending or initiating meetings with teachers and (f) children scoring better on assessments.

Description of Evaluation:

Using a quasi-experimental design, evaluators will randomly select a comparison group of BIE schools to match the geographic and tribal representation of the 1,000-student sample in participating BIE schools. Statistically significant predictors of school readiness will be utilized to construct a structural model of the direct and indirect effects of BabyFACE. Research questions will address (a) the extent to which BabyFACE identifies and remediates developmental and language delays prior to school entry, (b) the effects of prekindergarten experiences on kindergarten readiness, (c) the effects of BabyFACE participation on various factors such as parents' knowledge of their children and (d) whether BabyFACE participation predicts early elementary school achievement.