Empirical Education Presents Initial Results from i3 Validation Grant Evaluation
Our director of research operations, Jenna Zacamy, joined Cheri Fancsali from IMPAQ International and Cyndy Greenleaf from the Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI) at WestEd at the Literacy Research Association (LRA) conference in Dallas, TX on December 4. Together, they conducted a symposium, which was the first formal presentation of findings from the Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation grant, Reading Apprenticeship Improving Secondary Education (RAISE). WestEd won the grant in 2010 with Empirical Education and IMPAQ serving as the evaluators. There are two ongoing evaluations: the first includes a randomized control trial (RCT) of over 40 schools in California and Pennsylvania investigating the impact of Reading Apprenticeship on teacher instructional practices and student achievement; the second is a formative evaluation spanning four states and 150+ schools investigating how the school systems build capacity to implement and disseminate Reading Apprenticeship and sustain these efforts. The symposium’s discussant, P. David Pearson (UC Berkeley), provided praise of the design and effort of both studies stating that he has “never seen such thoughtful and extensive evaluations.” Preliminary findings from the RCT show that Reading Apprenticeship teachers provide students more opportunities to practice metacognitive strategies and foster and support more student collaboration opportunities. Findings from the second year of the formative evaluation suggest high levels of buy-in and commitment from both school administrators and teachers, but also identify competing initiatives and priorities as a primary challenge to sustainability. Initial findings of our five-year, multi-state study of RAISE are promising, but reflect the real-world complexity of scaling up and evaluating literacy initiatives across several contexts. Final results from both studies will be available in 2015.
View the information presented at LRA here and here.