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Study of Instructional Improvement (SII) (ICPSR 26282)
Released/updated on: 2010-05-20
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 2000-01-01--2004-01-01
To meet the growing need for high-quality research on whole-school approaches to instructional improvement, researchers at the University of Michigan School of Education, in cooperation with the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), conducted a large-scale, mixed method, longitudinal Study of Instructional Improvement to investigate the design, implementation, and effects on student achievement of three of the most widely-adopted whole-school school reform programs in the United States: the Accelerated Schools (ASP), America's Choice (AC), and Success for All (SFA). Each of these school reform programs sought to make "comprehensive" changes in the instructional capacity of schools, and each was being implemented in schools in diverse social environments. Each program, however, also pursued a different design for instructional improvement, and each developed particular strategies for assisting schools in the change process. In order to better understand the process of whole-school reform, Study of Instructional Improvement (SII) developed a program of research to examine how these interventions operated and to investigate their impact on schools' instructional practice and student achievement in reading and mathematics. The research program had 3 components: a longitudinal survey of 115 schools (roughly 30 schools in each of the 3 interventions under study, plus 26 matched control schools), case studies of the 3 interventions under study, and detailed case studies of 9 schools implementing the interventions under study (plus 3 matched control schools). Across all components of the SII study, the research examined alternative designs for instructional improvement, alternative strategies for putting these designs into practice in local schools, and the extent to which alternative designs and support strategies promote substantial changes in instructional capacity and student achievement in reading and mathematics. The most comprehensive component of SII was a large-scale, longitudinal, multisurvey study of schools. The use of survey research methods was intended to track the course of schools' engagement in comprehensive approaches to instructional improvement and to investigate the conditions under which this led to substantive changes in instructional practices and student achievement in reading and mathematics. The study design called for each school to participate in the study for a period of three years, although some schools voluntarily provided a fourth year of teacher, leader, and school-level information (no additional student-level data). In addition, survey researchers conducted interviews, primarily a telephone protocol with a parent or guardian of each cohort student in order to gather information on students' family background and on students' home and community environments. Researchers also gathered data from school leaders and others about the policy environments in which the schools are located. Another component of the research program involved the development of detailed case studies of a small number schools participating in the study. The case studies gathered observational, interview, and documentary evidence to better understand how instructional change processes unfolded in different school settings. Case studies were conducted in 12 schools operating in differently configured state and district policy environments. In each environment, researchers selected schools participating in one of the interventions under study as well as a "matched" control school. Finally, case study data was used to chart key similarities and differences in the design and operations of the interventions under study, to analyze how different design features affect operating strategies, and to better understand the general problem of how intervention programs can work to devise and "bring to scale" a feasible scheme for improving instruction in local schools.
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Texas Higher Education Opportunity Project (ICPSR 29841)
Released/updated on: 2011-06-02
Geographic coverage: United States, Texas
The research goals of the Baseline survey were to establish a panel of sophomore and senior high school students in the state of Texas that can be followed to examine the decision-making, knowledge and attitudes of students regarding post-high school life course decisions in light of the existence of the Top 10 legislation in Texas. The baseline survey was intended to establish benchmark measures. Follow-up surveys with a subsample of the students will be used to track the evolution of student decision-making about college attendance among those who attend college (full time or part time) immediately after high school graduation as well as those who decide to attend college one or more years after graduation. The Baseline survey objectives called for the collection of 33,000 to 35,000 completed interviews with sophomores and seniors in Texas public high schools using a sample survey design. A probability sample of 100 high schools was desired. Interviews were to be conducted in class using self-administered surveys. This would require district and high school cooperation with the survey effort. Analysis was desired at multiple levels of the education system -- students, schools and districts. Because of the multilevel nature of the analytic goals of the study, a census of sophomores and seniors was desired within the schools that were selected into the survey (to facilitate multilevel analyses). At the student level, analyses were desired separately by racial/ethnic subgroup: non-Hispanic Whites; African Americans; Asians and Hispanics. Moreover, analyses of likely college goers and non-college goers were desired. The Wave 2 Senior Study is the first follow-up with a subsample of baseline seniors. This phase tracks the evolution of student decision-making about college attendance among those who decide to attend college (full or part time) immediately after high school graduation, as well as those who decide to attend college one or more years after graduation. The survey also covers post high school activities including military enlistment, employment, civic activities, high school experiences, life events, self-esteem, and current living status. The following demographic subgroups will be used for comparative analyses: Non-Hispanic Whites, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. Additionally, separate analyses are desired for students attending college or technical school and students not attending college one year after attending high school. The Sophomore Wave 2 "Stayer Leaver" Survey is the first follow-up with a subsample of baseline sophomores. Most of the respondents were in their senior year of high school at the time of the interview. The focus of the survey is on the student's activities during the senior year and their plans after high school. An important component of this study was to partition the sophomore cohort into Stayers and Leavers. Stayers represent those students who have attended the same high school from the baseline survey in 2002 to the Wave 2 survey in 2004. Analysis of students who stayed at the same high school will determine whether students' knowledge of the Top 10 Percent law increased and whether they changed their college aspirations as they progressed through school. Leavers are those students that have changed schools or dropped out (and did not return to the same high school) between the baseline survey and the Wave 2 survey. Analysis of the leaver students will determine whether, how many, and which students deliberately changed schools in order to qualify for the benefits of the Top 10 Percent law. Students that had dropped out of school, regardless of whether they returned to school or not, were asked a series of questions that explored reasons for dropping out and activities during their time away from school. Students that dropped out, but then returned to the same high school are defined as Stayers. Those that dropped out and did not return to school, or attended a different school, are defined as Leavers. The Senior Wave 3 survey is the second follow-up interview with the subsample of 8,345 baseline seniors. The Wave 3 survey sought to determine students' educational pursuits and levels of attainment, and other life choices, four years after high school graduation. For students following a four-year path through college or university, graduation would occur in 2006, but a special strength of Wave 3 is its ability to identify delayed college entry; transfers among post-secondary institutions, including transfers to and from community colleges; withdrawal from college; and variation in school-to-work trajectories for students according to class rank. The THEOP administrative data consists of college applications and enrollee college transcripts obtained from nine Texas universities--seven public and two private institutions. For the public institutions, freshman Application Data spans several years prior to the implementation of the Texas Top 10 Percent law in 1998, and extends until at least 2002. Application Data for the two private institutions is available only for the period after implementation of the automatic admission law.