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Absolute Priority #1: Innovations that Support Effective TeachersCompetitive Priority #6: College Access and Success Development GrantETi3--Effective Teachers: The Soil That Nurtures Student GrowthReasonable hypothesis: Evidence based professional development strategies that increase teacher effectiveness—especially related to literacy skills, technology integration, and ongoing data performance feedback-- will enhance student growth across varied performance measures—including successful college preparations, entrance, and graduation.AbstractWe need an innovative strategy that structures the rigor of teacher effectiveness training and assessments so that targeted professional development mastery, student achievement (as define Section 1111(b) ESEA and other measures) in writing, students’ enhanced college and career readiness, and input from parents become incentives that not only drive student achievement, but also ensure clear, transparent, and fair multi-layered teacher evaluations. There is also a need for rigorous professional development and college access/success research. In order to provide teachers with evidence-based professional development strategies that develop pedagogical and content-specific expertise in literacy, technology integration, and ongoing data performance feedback, we propose to collaborate with Vantage Learning Implementation Service associates to implement MY Access! Program that incorporates iSEEKSupercruncher? system. We will also collaborate with researchers from neighboring Lamar University to internal evaluations and to expand findings from their study on college access and success. The proposed project will implement an innovative professional development training system between participating schools in the Beaumont Independent School District to collect, analyze, link and report data on meaningful differentiations in teacher effectiveness associated with variations in multiple measures, including rates of progress in focused professional development, District Walk-Throughs, Marzano’s Classroom Management criteria, differentiated instruction with MY Access! and iSEEKSupercruncher?, and a host of other baseline ratings and how those factors affect student achievement. The system will also provide meaningful, clear and timely feedback to teachers to improve their content knowledge and overall practice, inform targeted professional development, and link weighted teacher effectiveness data with annual performance incentive and bonus levels so that student achievement is rewarded.Three key goals guide our project that aims to serve the needs of approximately 9,300 District students and families, and 165-170 teachers. Goal one will implement two key baseline assessment-ready strategies to formatively measure, reinforce through feedback and evaluate effects of levels of professional development on participating teachers’ instructional content and delivery effectiveness. Goal two will define teachers’ expertise in Cross Curricular Professional Development systems to enhance effectiveness. Goal three describes the District’s plan to lead Texas in establishing unified standards for innovative services that give families, students, and communities the information they need to assess children’s college and career readiness according to the Texas Academic Indicator System and use technology, social networking and community financial planners to teach families how to make intelligent decisions and plans to keep their children on academic and financial track for college and career success. Strategies in this goal will also include expansion of previous work by Lamar University researchers to identify academic and non-academic factors that predict college access and success readiness—especially as such relate to a particular group of At Risk students, African American males, and internal evaluations by Lamar University statistician. We explain our evaluation plan, our management plan, and discuss broad dissemination strategies that would set the groundwork for further project expansion and participation. Absolute Priority #1: Innovations that Support Effective TeachersCompetitive Priority #6: College Access and Success Development GrantTeacher Effectiveness i3(TEi3): Effective Teachers: The Soil That Nurtures Student GrowthReasonable hypothesis: Evidence based professional development strategies that increase teacher effectiveness—especially related to literacy skills, technology integration, and ongoing data performance feedback-- will enhance student growth across varied performance measures—including successful college preparations, entrance, and graduation.Need for the Project and Project Design Quality (up to 25 points)A.1 The extent to which the proposed project represents and exceptional approach to the priorities (i.e. addresses a largely unmet need, particularly for high-need students, and is a practice, strategy, or program that has not already been widely adopted) We need an innovative strategy that structures the rigor of teacher effectiveness training and assessments so that targeted professional development mastery, student achievement (as define Section 1111(b) ESEA and other measures) in writing, students’ enhanced college and career readiness, and input from parents become incentives that not only drive student achievement, but also ensure clear, transparent, and fair multi-layered teacher evaluations. Because of the paucity of rigor in most professional development research, the proposed project is exceptional in its value to the growing body of intervention research. “A great teacher can make the difference between a student who achieves at high levels and a student who slips through the cracks…” (ESEA Blueprint for Reform, 2010).Of all the factors that predict student growth, teacher effectiveness is one of the strongest indicators (Darling-Hammond, 1999; Rowan, Correnti & Miller, 2002; ESEA Blueprint for Reform, 2010). A school district may boast of cutting-edge technology infrastructures, data driven instructional capacity, well-aligned curriculum content, transformational entrepreneurial leadership, engaged students and families, etc.; however, lack of truly effective teachers impedes student growth (Markley, 2004). Student achievement, therefore, is an outcome of well-educated and highly experienced teachers (Glass, 2002b). Broad, generalized professional development programs are by no means the “silver bullet” to ensure student achievement across specific content areas. Recent evidence suggests that focused teacher professional development is an exceptionally critical factor not only to increasing the number of students who master State mandated testing skills, but also empowering teachers to prepare students at all grade levels to graduate from college (Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives, 2009). Exceptional approaches to professional development recognize and identify variations in teacher performance and implement strategies that align teacher needs with student learning needs (Weisberg, et al, 2009)—especially as they relate to literacy skills, technology integration and ongoing data performance feedback that empower teachers to facilitate student growth. Exceptional professional development strategies include District efforts that raise teacher expectations to ensure that every high school graduate is adequately prepared for college and/or career success—starting at the Kindergarten level. In essence, exceptional professional development practices ensure that students who are well prepared for college and careers reflect not only the fruit of their personal achievement efforts, but also mirror the quality of soil nurtured by effective teachers. Students in classrooms without effective teachers are similar to seeds planted in nutrient deficient soil—their level and rate of growth are constricted by unmet academic needs. That is, although student performance indicators may satisfy minimum State standards, the deeper need may be to enhance teacher effectiveness and expectations through targeted professional development and coaching to ensure that more students master rigorous standards that keep them on track for college- and career-ready high school graduation. For example, according to recently reported student completion rates for the Beaumont Independent School District (BISD), of the 77.8% overall high school students who graduated, a mere 29% were College Ready Graduates in both Mathematics and English Language Arts, as specified by the Texas Success Initiative Higher Education Readiness Component (Academic Excellence Indicator System, 2008-09). Further examination of this report revealed a more disturbing trend for Economically Disadvantaged as well as At Risk learners: respectively, completion rates were only 73.4% and 59.5% for BISD, while 22.4% of BISD’s Economically Disadvantaged graduates and 11.3% of At Risk graduates were College Ready in both subjects. Clearly, the District’s most critical need is to adopt bold strategies for meaningful professional development across varied subject areas along with support to ensure that all students receive education equity. Foremost, there is the need for District-wide standards and expectations to reflect the knowledge and skills required for success after high school—especially in higher education. Cursorily, the 2008 – 2009 Academic Excellence Indicators reflect herculean strides at reaching Texas’ mandated minimum academic requirements; however, a focused perusal reveals a dismal dilemma of unmet student needs embedded within structurally inherent impediments. On the one hand, most students have clearly demonstrated intellectual nimbleness and adaptability to attain continuously evolving State minimum standards in Mathematics and English Language Arts. Yet, on the other hand, performance scores indicated the need for teacher effectiveness strategies and practices that would raise achievement expectations and enhance students’ college and career readiness. Simply stated, the Indicators highlight a systemic flaw that may actually underpin an inflexible gap between what Texans believe students should know in order to simply earn a diploma and the minimum level of knowledge required for success in college and 21st century careers. Insidiously, the vast majority of minimally-educated children who are ill-prepared for success in college are also Economically Disadvantaged and/or At Risk—even though research indicates that over 80% of 21st century jobs require some postsecondary education (Texas College and Career Readiness Standards, 2009). Implicitly, this dilemma presents the opportunity for progressive Districts, like BISD, to voluntarily raise academic expectations and performance beyond minimum requirements of law and State Board of Education rule by developing effective teachers who act as nutrient soil that nurtures every student to graduate from high school well prepared for college and a career, regardless of income, race, or language background. The most compelling interpretation of this data suggests that the enormously persistent gap between the State’s minimum requirements for high school graduation and the State’s minimum requirements for college readiness may be symptomatic of a well-entrenched two tier set of academic expectations that invariably produces vicious cycles of high need students without 21st century job skills—simply stated, a probable ‘school-to-unproductive, impoverished adult life’ pipeline (U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, 1997). The data says that although Texas students may successfully complete State mandated graduation requirements, their deficiency in college readiness—especially in Mathematics and English Language Arts-- indicates a need for strategies that not only prepare them for success on State mandated achievement assessments, but also promote a college-going and completing culture. Optimistically, the data also introduce opportunities for BISD to take the lead in implementing targeted professional development strategies that would ensure college and career readiness for all students. In essence, students’ achievement and growth need to be measurably linked to professional development effectiveness-- especially related to literacy skills, technology integration and ongoing data performance feedback. We need a research-based teacher effectiveness model aligned with professional development practices undergirded by a powerful data system for establishing a well-defined link between our proposed project outcomes as they impact student learning. The Vantage Learning Implementation Services has yielded limited evidence in serving that need in BISD; and, their MY Access! Program that incorporates the iSEEKSupercruncher? system warrants a formal and systematic study.To meet our need for effective teachers, three distinct goals define the purpose and parameters of the proposed project, ETi3--Effective Teachers: The Soil That Nurtures Student Growth. Absolute Priority #1 defines our first and second goals. Goal one will implement two key baseline assessment-ready strategies to formatively measure, reinforce through feedback and evaluate participating teachers’ instructional content and delivery effectiveness (e.g. District Classroom Walkthroughs (DWTs), Marzano’s classroom management skills, differentiated instruction with MyAccess! And iSEEKSupercruncher?, etc.). Within that framework, the objectives of Goal two will support teachers’ training in mastery of Cross Curricular Professional Development systems (e.g. literacy skills development with MyAccess! and iSEEKSupercruncher?, technology integration to align professional development training outcomes with student growth, etc.) to enhance teacher effectiveness (e.g. defined in RFA, page 12). Although these first two goals interactively intersect to undergird and manage progress in our proposed teacher effectiveness program, the strength of their jointed success should not only enhance our criteria for student achievement and growth, but it also forms the foundation for Goal 3. Rooted in our mission to provide families with high quality training that would help them make responsible informed decisions about college and career readiness (Brown, 2006), Goal 3, our Competitive Priority #6, enumerates four student-, parent-, teacher-, District-engagement practices intended to expand our current Parent Involvement Program to include a stronger emphasis on college and career readiness for all students—especially at the high school level, and institute a mechanism to measure and reward parental engagement. Because the ultimate outcomes for Goal 3 may not be apparently measureable within the grant completion time frame, our methods to directly link outcomes to teacher incentives/bonuses associated with Goals 1 and 2 are inherently limited. Therefore, our intent is to measure the effect of its objectives according to a distinct set of outcomes (detailed later in this proposal) that includes measures of students’ and families’ self-empowerment efforts to gain knowledge about a variety of college and career readiness issues that will be regularly available, easily accessible, and incentivized. These goals are exceptional because in that they address largely unmet needs, particularly for high-need students, and represent an innovative practice that has not already been widely adopted.A2. Project Design Quality: The extent to which the proposed project has a clear set of goals and an explicit strategy, with the goals, objectives, and outcomes to be achieved by the proposed project clearly specified and measurable and linked Absolute Priority #1.“…make the greatest gain in student achievement in the shortest time by focusing on writing” (National Commission on Writing, 1999). Our overall aim is twofold: We plan to collaborate with teachers, principals, parents, students, and other stakeholders in partnership with Vantage Learning Professional Services Group (MY Access! Implementation Services? and iSEEKSupercruncher?) to improve teacher effectiveness through the refinement of a rigorous, transparent, and fair multi-layered evaluation system designed to enhance achievement for high need students. That is, our system will be able to collect, analyze, link and report data on meaningful differentiations in teacher effectiveness associated with variations in multiple measures, including rates of progress in focused professional development, student survey ratings, peer ratings, District Walk-Throughs, Marzano’s Classroom Management criteria, differentiated instruction with MY Access! and iSEEKSupercruncher?, average of Parent Report Card ratings, teacher demographic information, and a host of other baseline ratings. The system will also be able to provide meaningful, clear and timely feedback to teachers to improve their content knowledge and overall practice, inform targeted professional development, and link weighted teacher effectiveness data with annual performance incentive and bonus levels. Two key goals—directly related to professional development strategies for improving the quality of teacher effectiveness will guide our activities for this component of our aim.BISD plans to be a leader Texas in establishing unified standards for innovative services that: (1) provide fresh approaches to give families, students, and communities the information they need to assess children’s college and career readiness according to the Texas Academic Indicator System; (2) use technology, social networking and community financial planners to teach families how to use relevant information to make intelligent decisions and concrete plans to keep their children on academic and financial track for college and career success; and, (3) empower parents, students, and other stakeholders with clearly articulated policies and cogent procedures to hold our District accountable for implementing our College Access and Success practices. Our third goal, then, will delineate monthly strategies, programs and practices that expand our current College Readiness Program into a specialized component, College Access and Success. These strategies will prepare 100% of high need students in grades K-12 (with a critical emphasis on high school students) to successfully prepare for, enter, and graduate from a two or four year college, or to achieve industry recognized certification through technical training programs for 21st century careers. Criteria for linking teacher effectiveness relative to student and family participation in our College Access and Success practices to yearly teacher incentives and bonuses will be described, along with mutual accountability methods between schools and families. Four multi-layered strategies to facilitate this goal will be explicated later in this proposal. In the next section, we first review our reasonable hypothesis, highlight our intended outcomes and overview our project plan design. Next, each of our three goals is explicated according to clear strategies, measurable objectives, and expected magnitude effect. Data collection, analysis, interpretation and methods for clear and frequent feedback for real time adjustments are explained as related to Goals 1 and 2 (which are directly linked to Absolute Priority #1, Teacher Effectiveness), followed by a compilation of techniques that will link specific student outcomes with teacher incentives/bonuses. Finally, we discuss data collection, analysis and interpretation plans for Goal 3 (linked to Competitive Priority #6, Innovations that Support College Access and Success) and describe qualitative and quantitative formative assessment procedures for three levels of participant outcome. This section concludes with a summation of how our goals support the Districts’ needs to improve achievement—especially for high need students.Based on our reasonable hypothesis, we plan to implement evidence based professional development strategies that increase teacher effectiveness—especially related to literacy skills, technology integration, and ongoing data performance feedback as linked to Absolute Priority #1, Teacher Effectiveness. The intended outcome is measurably enhanced and sustained student achievement in Advanced Placement (AP) enrollment and test performance, graduation and completion rates, District reading and writing assessments, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) yearly assessment, and Texas Higher Education Readiness Component —especially for Economically Disadvantaged and At Risk students in our District. Relative to Competitive Priority #6, Innovations that Support College Access and Success, our proposed project will measurably increase three additional areas of college readiness. Specifically, student and parent/family participation in site-based and virtual college sessions about college/career expectations and preparedness; student/parent/family participation in workshops, social networking sessions and seminars related to college affordability and the application process; and, efforts by students/parents/families to share college and career readiness practices with peers and relatives will demonstrate measurable results. Our plan to impact the outcome variables for each goal will be expounded in this section along with the objectives description for each goal. Teachers will be randomly assigned to one of three project groups as specified in the Evaluation plan section.Goal #1: Over the course of the grant, participating teachers will be able to demonstrate improvements in best practices for instructional content and delivery. The Vantage Learning associates will work with a representative team of randomly selected teachers from high need student classrooms and other stakeholders to form a consensus about crucial teacher skills necessary for effectiveness in promoting student achievement. The main mechanism to connect data around the key indicators of whether students have effective teachers and the effectiveness of our proposed professional development project will be iSEEK Supercruncher?. This system is a transformational online reporting tool which unifies all disparate data sets into an intelligent, actionable whole that facilitates efficient reporting on every conceivable relationship among the data. Key assessment-ready strategies to formatively assess, reinforce and evaluate participating teachers’ instructional content and delivery outcomes and how they impact student achievement over time are detailed here. Teachers will be randomly assigned to one of three project groups as specified in the Evaluation plan section.Objective and Explicit Strategy 1A: Content Knowledge Expertise: Targeted teachers will participate in the comprehensive Vantage Learning-MY Access! program in order to develop a well-articulated content knowledge base from which progressive levels of expertise emerge (Marzano, 2009). The unique aspect of this training component is its focus on writing and literacy in ways that incorporate critical thinking, logical reasoning, and deliberate practice to organize information in terms of meaningful relationships. Since expertise not only involves acquisition of large bodies of relevant knowledge, the Vantage system trains teachers how to organize related principles within “big ideas” to perceive patterns, and how to conditionalize knowledge for effortless retrieval (Bransford et al., 1999) to become experts in their content area. For example, Vantage Learning’s iSEEKSupercruncher? technology not only aligns professional development training outcomes with student growth, the system has the capability to collect, analyze and link teacher professional development performance data across multiple measures to inform effective and targeted strategies. The system will collect and enter initial measures of content area knowledge into the rubric, along with other related factors, e.g. years of experience in subject area, type of teacher preparation program, quantified student survey responses, self-evaluations, peer evaluations, area of certification, etc. to initiate an electronic portfolio for each teacher. After each content area training session and/or workshop, each participant’s level of performance on content will be assessed and immediate, clear feedback provided for real-time adjustments (Marzano, 2010). Re-training will be aligned and implemented according to indicated content area deficiencies that inhibit student learning. At least 4 DWT per school year will be required, 6 content knowledge enhancement sessions per year, and each participating teacher’s cumulative increase average in content area knowledge should be within a range of 25 – 35% and annual incentives/bonuses awarded accordingly for Experimental Group #1, and determined by separate formula for remaining participants. Teachers will be randomly assigned to one of three project groups as specified in the Evaluation plan section.Objective and Explicit Strategy 1.B Instructional Delivery Improvement: Participating eachers will participate in the comprehensive professional learning system in order to increase deliberate instructional delivery practice by at least 20% per year as measured by standardized BISD Classroom Walk-Through criteria. According to Marzano (2010), exceptional professional development strategies must provide opportunities for deliberate practice within a comprehensive professional learning system in which there are clear and focused tasks, clear criteria for success, and motivation to improve within the context of mentoring, coaching and leading. The Vantage system will administer their comprehensive survey to gather baseline measures of pedagogy skill levels associated with effective teacher designation-- including scale ratings on items related to planning and preparation, classroom environment, instructional delivery, classroom management, basic technology skills, etc. In addition to the 10-12 online training sessions for formative evaluations, Vantage will administer a version of the overall survey to teachers at the start and close of the school year. This data will inform essential recruitment, placement and identification decisions and provide information critical to the professional development process with respect to classroom management skills. As formative assessment data enters the system and clear feedback informs re-training, we expect to see a pattern of teacher efficiency growth directly proportional to professional development targets such that each participating teacher’s cumulative increase average in pedagogy skills development should be between 25 – 35% and annual incentives/bonuses awarded accordingly. Teachers will be randomly assigned to one of three project groups as specified in the Evaluation plan section.Goal #2: Over the course of the grant, effective teachers will be able to demonstrate mastery level performance in Cross Curricular Professional Development literacy skills, technology integration, and ongoing formative assessment and adjustment systems. The Vantage Learning associates will work with a representative team of teachers from each District to form a consensus about the level of proficiency they should demonstrate in order to measurably enhance and sustain student achievement in Advanced Placement (AP) enrollment (by at least 20% per year) and AP test performance (50% of AP students must score at least 3 on AP examination), graduation and completion rates (increased by at least 50% each year), District reading and writing assessments (increased by at least 50%/year across all applicable grade levels), the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) yearly assessment (increase the percentage of “Commended” performance student ratings by at least 50%/year), and Texas Higher Education Readiness Component (increased by at least 20% per year) —especially for Economically Disadvantaged and At Risk students in both Districts. Teachers will be randomly assigned to one of three project groups as specified in the Evaluation plan section.Objective and Explicit Strategy 2.A Literacy Skills, Technology Integration, and Ongoing Formative Assessment: Targeted teachers will participate in the comprehensive Vantage Learning-MY Access! program in order to successfully complete literacy skills, technology integration, and ongoing formative assessment and adjustment systems professional development training that will not only improve their competency, but also measurably increase student writing achievement. Since literacy is virtually a prerequisite for careers in the professional and technical sectors, our project will use writing as the basis for technology integration to measure formative assessments and inform adjustments. Our writing instruction/literacy professional development plan is to build capacity, enrich pedagogy, and incorporate essential technology to enhance teacher performance leading to student success. Primarily, our work with targeted English Language Arts (ELA) teachers in Beaumont on an ongoing basis will include series of focused workshops, coaching/mentoring training, and implementation services. The iSEEK Supercruncher? system will analyze data according to professional development training levels in content and pedagogy as a function of individual student growth, particularly in writing across subject areas for each group that receives pd. For example, Vantage will conduct workshops that highlight best practices where teachers use data driven instructional approaches to construct lesson plans during common planning periods at District sites. Furthermore, attendees will learn to use disaggregated student performance data to design curriculum maps that align Vantage Learning instructional materials, professional development targets, and indicated student deficiencies with State and textbook standards and identify their own content/delivery needs for professional development enrichment. Training sessions will include opportunities for teachers review data reports and customize their individual needs and work cooperatively to establish the process rubrics to measure student success criteria for this component. We expect Experimental group #1 participants to increase performance in the literacy skills, technology integration, and ongoing formative assessment component by at least 50% over the first year of implementation, and then at least 75% thereafter-- which should be evident in parallel increases in student achievement in writing across subject areas. Annual incentives/bonuses will be awarded based on the strength of relationship between teacher outcomes under Goal #1 combined with professional development training assessments under Goal #2, as they relate to levels of student outcomes. That is, the stronger the increasing relationship between teacher effectiveness and student outcome criteria, the higher the level of teacher performance incentives.Objective and Explicit Strategy 2.B Coaching and Mentoring Sessions: All Experimental Group 1 participating teachers will regularly interact with instructional coaches, professional mentors, and e-mentors (Anthony, 2008) in such a way that every participating teacher engages in some aspect of professional learning every day to ensure that every student has an effective teacher who receives on-going support, recognition, and collaboration opportunities necessary for success (Blueprint for Reform, 2010). The meaningfulness of Coaching and Mentoring (CAM) sessions will be enhanced as a result of clearly documented observation feedback by certified Vantage Learning trainers. Each CAM session will be tailored to teachers’ unique needs and learning styles and will focus on specific subject/and/or instructional strategies-- delivering a customized, data-driven learning experience where teachers carefully examine iSEEK Supercruncher? data reports and learn how to extract and interpret rich data reports for enhanced effectiveness and student learning. The unique aspect of this component is its multi-layered, differentiated, and integrated approach using teacher self-analysis input informed by iSEEK Supercruncher? evidence and student data. That is, teachers will be provided opportunities to interact about how they used the Vantage strategies in effective ways, what did not work for them and why, and the peculiar adjustments they made as a result of their evolving expertise, enhanced pedagogy, and literacy skills training. We expect all participants to improve Mentoring and Coaching performance criteria by at least 50% over the first year of implementation, and then at least 75% thereafter-- which should be evident in substantial increases in student achievement across subject areas and decreases in the frequency of component services. Data from this component of professional development will be integrated into the robust data set such and annual incentives/bonuses will be awarded based on the strength of relationship between teacher outcomes under Goals #1 and #2, as they relate to levels of student outcomes for this group of participants, while other participants will receive a differently defined bonus. That is, the stronger the increasing relationship between teacher effectiveness and student outcomes, the lower the frequency of Coaching and Mentoring component services and the higher the level of teacher performance incentives.Goal #3: College Access and Success (CAAS) Competitive Priority #6: Researchers at neighboring Lamar University have pilot data on a study identifying academic and non-academic factors that affect African American males’ college retention and graduation rate at Lamar University. Their preliminary findings suggest some factors may be traced back to high school and even middle school students. One part of goal #3 will be focus group brainstorming between Lamar researchers and BISD project staff to determine strategies for expansion of their project into the proposed grant project. Specifically, we plan to analyze the extent to which certain academic and non-academic factors predict college readiness for African American high school males. Methodology similar to that applied in the Lamar student which replicates the ACT policy research on college retention (Lotkowski, et al., 2004) and a logistic regression model will be used to determine the relationship between a categorical outcome and set of independent variables such as TAKS scores, Benchmark scores, etc. This data will be compared with findings from the Lamar study of college level students to determine compatibility patterns and to investigate possible sufficient interventions.Over the course of the grant, BISD will offer monthly strategies, programs, and practices preparing 100% of high needs students in grades K-12 (with a critical emphasis on high school students) to successfully prepare for, enter, and graduate from a two or four year college—and/or (at the high school level) gain industry recognized certification through technical training programs for 21st century careers. Through our College Access and Success (CAAS) component, we will increase specific areas of college readiness, including student and parent/family participation in site-based and virtual college sessions about college/career expectations and preparedness; student/parent/family participation in workshops, social networking sessions and seminars related to college affordability and the application process; and, efforts by students/parents/families to share college and career readiness practices with peers and relatives—all three areas as measured by three levels of participation—parent/family level, student level, and teacher/school and/or parent facilitator level. Data from this component will be included in the iSEEK Supercruncher? electronic CAAS database. All of this will be undertaken in an effort to “promote a culture of college readiness and success” (A Blueprint for Reform) and expand our overall practices that provide measures to hold parents and schools accountable for student achievement.Objective and Explicit Strategy 3.A. BISD’s Directors of Counselors will devise effective strategies to expand the reach of college preparatory programs such as Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), Princeton Review, College Board, etc. so that at the Districts’ programs reach at least 35% more high school and middle school students over the first year of this i3 grant. During years 2 and 3, enrollment in college prep courses and activities will increase by another 32% each year, such that by the end of the third year, student enrollment will have doubled. 3.A.1 All participating high school students will work with specialized tutors and mentors for at least 3 hours weekly to enhance performance on AP exams so that the number of students who complete the Distinguished Achievement graduation plan increases by 25% each year of the grant funding. (Note: In Texas, students graduate from high school on one of three graduation plans, the: Minimum Plan requires 22 credits and may include students who are not college-bound but may explore certification in industry-recognized programs; Recommended Graduation programs requiring 24 credits and offering a college prep curriculum; and Distinguished Achievement Plan requiring at least 24 credits with 3 years or more of foreign language, dual-credit classes and a minimum score of 3 or on Advanced Placement exam). Pre- and post-program training enrollment, performance, and rates changes will be included in the iSEEK Supercruncher? electronic CAAS database, along with tutors’ and mentors’ assessments of student participation and perceptions. Parents will complete monthly online perception questionnaires to rate their understanding of how their child’s participation in this component is aligned with his/her individualized CAAS plan which will qualify them for points toward a monthly prize and to include the family participation data in respective teachers’ professional development and effectiveness assessments.3.A.2. All participating parents will be required to attend at least 2 informational workshops, 2 informational/achievement banquets, and 2 support-training seminars during each school year. Parents will be rewarded with incentives from corporate/industry stakeholders and/or area philanthropic foundations. We plan to also offer Adult Training courses for parents interested in personal college readiness and maintain support data as an additional component of the proposed program’s impact. Parents’ participation will be measured by internal evaluation mechanisms linked to overall program evaluation as well as teacher incentives/bonuses.3.A.3. All participating students will be required to complete all components of their program within the program timeframe and will build an electronic portfolio (e.g. Facebook, etc.) suitable for basic college entrance standards, documentation of individual student growth, and for mentally reinforcing students’ commitment and interest in college success. Students’ program completion will be evaluated on an individual and school level, and linked to overall program evaluation as well as teacher and parent incentives/bonuses. Program coordinator will monitor, collect data, and submit monthly progress reports to supervisors and/or IT for formative assessments and end of year evaluating and reporting—for parent engagement component, student participation component, and extent of effect of each program component in enhancing student outcomes.Objective and Explicit Strategy 3.B. BISD campus coordinators will work with College Board, The Texas Film Commission, and companies like AMD Changing the Game, to develop, test and implement video games with social content that help K-12 students develop essential skills in Science, Technology, Engineering, and/or Math, also known as STEM skills. Through the process of developing and playing their own issue-themed games, students enhance critical thinking, problem solving, project leadership, and contemporary themes of social responsibility that expand their future educational and professional opportunities as citizens of the 21st Century. 3.B.1. Once each grant year, participating students at all grade levels will complete Gaming for Education ? seminar to stimulate their interest in STEM-related courses and careers. Middle and high school students who decide to pursue STEM tracks will set up folders within their online portfolios that track their progress in STEM-related activities and studies over the course of their school experiences. Each entry in their STEM folder will be captured and incorporated into their overall college readiness plan and analyzed according to the impact on individual achievement outcome. Parent participants will be required to validate students’ online home assignment submissions with a special password and parent participation will be linked to the respective teacher’s evaluation incentives/bonuses. Parent input will also be accumulated for parent incentives and bonuses.3.B.2. Each month, 100% of student participants will accumulate at least 3 hours of supervised activities that spark interests in postsecondary education through online virtual college visits (Tom Joyner Virtual College) appropriate for learners at each grade level. Student participation will be measured and documented through online student portfolios that are linked to teacher incentives/bonuses. Parent participation will be measured by returned “virtual field experience” permission letters where parents indicate their understanding of how the field experience may enhance their child’s college readiness. Parent permission letters will be linked to iSEEK Supercruncher? electronic CAAS database and parents will complete strategy evaluations online in order to qualify for points toward a monthly prize and to include the family participation data in respective teachers’ professional development and effectiveness assessments. 3.B.3. Districts will offer monthly social-emotional development strategy sessions that teach parents effective listening strategies to enhance communication between them and their children (Brown, 2006). Parents will be required to submit monthly online support verifications from a pre-determined checklist to document any changes they detect in their children’s perception about college (this input may be included in portal for 3.B.2., but counted distinctly). The District will ensure access to online forms, activities, etc. for parents who need it. Parent perceptions of their children’s attitudes toward program participation as indicated on the verification checklists will be compiled with other program data as one measure of program quality. Using the iSEEK Supercruncher? electronic CAAS database, parent participation will be linked to teacher incentives/bonuses as they complete online session evaluations and respond to online review activities and earn points toward monthly incentives.3.B.4. Parents (especially of Disadvantaged and At Risk learners) will be required to attend at least 1 of the 3 offered motivational strategies training workshops and Learned Optimism (Seligman, 1999) sessions per year designed to teach evidence-based support techniques to help them demonstrate their interest in and concern about children’s college readiness. Workshop evaluations from participants will facilitate formative program development and effectiveness strategies. Parents’ level of implementation of workshop/session strategies will be measured qualitatively—based on students’ questionnaire reports in their iSEEK Supercruncher? electronic CAAS folders and linked to respective teacher performance matrix. Parents will complete strategy evaluations online in order to qualify for points toward a monthly prize and to include the family participation data in teachers’ professional development and effectiveness assessments.Objective and Explicit Strategy 3.C. All participating schools will implement effective strategies to enhance parent and family participation at College Night, Career Fairs, P/SAT preparation workshops, virtual college fairs, and partnerships with area undergraduate and graduate student mentors and tutors so that each month 100% of participating students and families will be afforded at least one opportunity that supports college preparedness. One important activity will be the mock college application completion walk-through. Using the District’s public service media time, campus parent teams will create a reality television show competition to work with teachers and students to role play the application and admissions process online. Level of family participation and viewer ratings will be entered into the robust iSEEK Supercruncher? electronic CAAS database and parents will complete strategy evaluations online in order to qualify for points toward a monthly prize and to include the family participation data in teachers’ professional development and effectiveness assessments.3.C.1. Each month, every student and her/his parent will receive at least 1 newsletter, email, Twitt, or Facebook message from a carefully vented knowledgeable adult—e.g. college student, adult mentor, community partner, religious leader, etc. that gives encouraging support to help keep them on track for college and career readiness. Parents will enter receipt responses online in order to qualify for points toward a monthly prize and to include the family participation data in teachers’ professional development and effectiveness assessments.3.C.2. Elementary school campus level Parent Facilitators will broaden the scope of activities for Parent Engagement Workshops to include Family Financial Literacy Nights where parents and families learn strategies to plan and save for college and how to identify and plan early for academic grants, scholarships and State college funds that provide college financial aid. Districts’ websites will be updated for technical assistance to families and each participating family will receive a Plan and Save ? packet of information from a local financial institute, and over the course of the first year, will be required to locate the websites for at least 5 colleges of interest and download admission and financial requirements for all 5. At least 6 related activities that use the downloaded information will be conducted over the school year and become a part of students’ iSEEK Supercruncher? electronic CAAS folder. Parents will complete session evaluations and submit sample college financial aid plans online in order to qualify for points toward a monthly prize and to include the family participation data in teachers’ professional development and effectiveness assessments.3.C.3. Starting at the Middle School level, students will learn to identify college scholarship competitions—academic, social, and athletic-- and practice writing skills for college scholarship and grant opportunities. Over the course of Middle School, students will submit samples of progressing writing skills activities and will be taught how to start a college fund with “extra change” and/or U. S. Savings Bonds. Community financial advisors will conduct workshops that teach financial literacy for college access. At the end of each semester, students’ portfolios will contain at least 4 college-related writing activities and will track –using a graph—college fund progress. This data will become a part of students’ iSEEK Supercruncher? electronic CAAS folder. Parents will validate the entries online in order to qualify for a monthly prize and to include the successful student project data in respective teachers’ effectiveness assessments.Objective and Explicit Strategy 4.A. For all elementary school students, the strongest emphasis will be on learning the names and locations of Texas colleges and universities and understanding how middle class lifestyle values and perks most often result from college educated choices. Fourth- and fifth-graders will learn how to create virtual visualization and display boards that stimulate an ongoing interest in college and career readiness. 4.A.1. By the end of each school year, all participating elementary school children will match the Texas college names, locations and mascots. They will also create models of middle class homes, cars, lifestyle images that come with college educated professions (e.g. physicians, scientists, nurses, teachers, etc.). They will be required to create oral stories and pictographs explaining why they want to complete college and ways they can encourage their friends and relatives to get a college education. These young students will participate in virtual college visits, interviews with school counselors, etc. for early encouragement on college readiness. Even at the Kindergarten level, children will initiate and maintain an online portfolio of college readiness related data within the iSEEK Supercruncher? electronic CAAS system. For example, at least once each month parents will assist their Kindergartners’ online early college readiness gaming activities. Parents will validate their children’s activities online in order to qualify for a monthly prize and to include the successful student project data in teachers’ professional development and effectiveness assessments.4.A.2. During the first semester of every school year, each older elementary level participant (grades 4 and 4) will create at least 1 virtual College Dream journal with an age-appropriate visualization display modeled after the interactive Roadmap to College version at . The board will include a mock copy of a college degree with the student’s name on it and become a part of students’ iSEEK Supercruncher? electronic CAAS folder. Parents will validate the entries online in order to qualify for a monthly prize and to include the successful student project data in teachers’ professional development and effectiveness assessments. Consistent with our overall aim to improve teacher effectiveness through the multi-layered evaluation system designed to enhance achievement for high need students and promote a family-centered mutually accountable college and career ready culture, our project proposes a systematic study to determine the potential for scale up. Although our proposed practice has very limited results from small scale implementation, our data is sufficient to warrant pilot testing to In this next section, we briefly review relevant evidence and theoretical considerations that underpin the reasoning behind our hypothesis. This section lays out a blueprint from an evidence-based theoretical action model that cradles the hypothesis and scaffolds our examination. Based on the importance of literacy skills—especially writing-- as a focus of professional development for academic achievement, we explain the project’s potential which could lead to closing the achievement gaps, decreasing drop out rates, increasing the quality and quantity of graduates, and increasing college and career readiness. Furthermore, we provide a scenario for the positive impact our project implementation will have, if funded, —as measured by the importance of the effect on overall student achievement. Finally, we close this section with a brief with a re-statement of our unmet need, and how research and previous results indicate further exploration of this innovative project is warranted. Strength of Research, Significance of Effect, and Magnitude of Effect (up to 10 points)B1. The Extent to which the eligible applicant demonstrates that there are research-based findings or reasonable hypotheses that support the proposed project, including related research in education and other areas.Although the literature on content-specific professional development is voluminous, the paucity of rigor in most studies is in itself not only an inherent limitation for generalizability and causal validity, but is also a clear indication of the exceptionality and innovativeness of the proposed project. The lack of high quality research evidence to guide educators in selecting professional development strategies for enhanced teacher effectiveness represents a gap in the student achievement equation and is listed by the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) as a topic for future review. Researchers like Marzano (2007,2009), Weisberg, et al (2009), etc, have conducted studies to identify best practices in overall teacher professional development, and hundreds of other researchers have examined and reviewed various studies of effective general as well as content-specific professional development (Borko, 2004; Richardson & Placier, 2001 Supovitz, 2001). For example, in their longitudinal study, Desimone, et al (2002) found that content-focused PD strategies had long-term effects on practice; while, Garet et al’s (2001) results indicated that content-knowledge focused PD had positive effects on mathematics and science teachers’ self reported practice. Similarly, Supovitz & Turner (2000) concluded that science teachers’ content preparation had a strong impact on teaching practice and classroom culture. Therefore, a general consensus is that targeted, highly specialized professional development focused on alignment of content knowledge and instructional delivery with student achievement has the best promise for academic success (Cohen & Hill, 2000; Wiley & Yoon, 1995; Brown, Smith, & Stein, 1996; Marzano, 2010; National Staff Development Council, 2009). That is, the most promising professional development programs for improved teaching practice leading to student achievement tend to be focused on specific academic content and curriculum aligned with standards-based goals (Whitehurst, 2002). Because of scarcity of rigor in professional development studies, and we consider professional development as expertise development in content-area teaching, for purposes of this proposal we analogize teacher professional development with skill perfection—expertise-- in any domain. Therefore, the convergence of diverse sources of evidence (education, cognitive development, psychology, etc.) strengthens the arguments for reasonableness of our hypothesis. Research indicates that expertise develops from the quality of knowledge, strategy-efficiency, and deliberate practice such that a particular skill is automotized—experts rely on domain-specific knowledge and domain-specific information processing for task mastery (Proffitt et al, 2000;Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995; Schunn & Anderson, 1999). Several key features that undergird expertise are also the fundamentals of our proposed pd training: content knowledge, organization of knowledge base, retrieval/application strategies, and automaticity. From that general premise, we reason that professional development strategies for our proposed program will produce a pattern of chain results linking writing-based PD mastery with increased teacher knowledge and practice, and ultimately, enhanced student achievement. Our reasoning is based on two key tenets: a theory of action detailing the relationship between PD features and at least two levels of outcomes—enhanced teacher effectiveness and student achievement (Garet et al. 2008); and, promising results from previously attempted project implementation on a limited scale. We hypothesize that teachers’ mastery of PD strategies should strengthen their content knowledge and pedagogy, which in turn should affect their classroom teaching practices to the extent that student achievement outcomes increase (Garet et al., 2008). Specifically, we reason that the proposed professional development strategies that increase teacher effectiveness—especially related to literacy skills, technology integration, and ongoing data performance feedback—along with specialized college access and success practices (as described in Goal #3), will enhance student growth across varied performance measures—including successful college preparations, entrance, and graduation. We further believe that the Vantage Learning team’s MY Access! Writing program provides the best means to implement our plan.In order to cradle our hypothesis within a testable theoretical framework, we intend to modify the Garet et al (2008) theory of action model for effective reading instruction and achievement professional development interventions to support examination of our literacy pd intervention. Their model is grounded in the relationship between three structural and three core features that organize and characterize change. The three structural features—Form, Duration, and Collective Participation—scaffold the extent to which the three core features take effect. The three core features, Content Focus, Active Learning, and Coherence—represent the substance of curricula for PD and organize the application of changes in knowledge. Together, the key features of the action model—in optimum operation—should impact teacher characteristics like content knowledge and classroom practice as well as student achievement. In essence, we contend that the theory supports our reasoning that the intermediate variable, teacher effectiveness, is not only a logical outcome of targeted pd, but is also strongly correlated with improving student outcomes. Analysis of goals 1 and 2 will determine whether the pd intervention strategies effect teacher effectiveness (level of expertise) and the extent to which expertise levels effect student outcomes. Goal #3 analysis will determine the extent to which academic and non-academic factors predict college readiness and whether CAAS strategies effect several short term and long term student and family outcomes. For purposes of the proposed project, the three key structural features, Form, Duration, and Collective Participation depend on the tenets of the MY Access! Implementation Services ? techniques and scaffold the core features in several ways. Although intricate details of the pd curriculum and strategies are not enumerated here, the Form of PD activities will be largely embedded in teachers’ daily school activities in ways that encourage Active Learning and Coherence. For example, the Coaching and Mentoring (CAM) component involves cycles of active ongoing classroom observation, feedback and re-training by certified Vantage Learning expert trainers in ways similar to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) where expertise is transmitted through skilled collaborations that yield indistinguishable results (Vygotsky, 1978). That CAM’s focus on guided participation coupled with feedback data from iSEEK Supercruncher? empowers teachers (learners) to meta-cognitively plan, monitor and evaluate their own performance so that PD strategies become automatized (Sternberg, 2001) is key to both Active Learning and Coherence. One measure of Active Learning and Coherence will be CAM reports from expert trainers and local instructional coaches. We expect the level of expert intervention to gradually decrease over time as teachers’ level of expertise increases—thus, progress will be measured as a function of increasing negative correlations. The second structural feature, Duration, refers to interactions between how long the activity takes and the number of hours committed to the activity. Again, Duration is closely linked with Active Learning and the CAM component demonstrates its role in the model. For purposes of the proposed project, we define deliberate practice as teachers’ engagement in carefully personalized sequenced sets of structured practice activities aimed at developing maximized improvement in a target skill (Farmer & Williams, 2005). Using deliberate practice—described in detail by Ericsson et al. (1993), Expert Coaches and Mentors will prepare and explain clear individualized feedback to address specific weaknesses and collaborate with the teacher to plan practice sessions that address indicated deficiencies. Duration will be documented and each participant’s data will be entered into the respective teacher’s iSEEK Supercruncher? portfolio. We expect deliberate practice, Duration, to have a measurable effect on teacher effectiveness until an acceptable level is reached as described in the relevant psychology literature (Baddeley, et al., 1978; Ericsson, et al. 1990). The third structural feature, Collective Participation among teachers with common pd needs, provides a dimension of support where teachers are able to collaborate ideas, problem-solving strategies, and develop collegial strength for ongoing support. Through Collective Participation, groups of teachers can expand opportunities for Active Learning and Coherence. This practice, similar to psychology collaborative learning strategies (Littleton & Hakkinen, 1999), enables teachers to work cooperatively in similarly situated groups to use their particular strengths in ways that benefit each member’s goals. The number and duration of common planning times and CAM components will facilitate measurements of the effect of this structural feature on overall effectiveness, and qualitative measures of teacher reports will add depth to this dimension of the model. Although the need for targeted professional development training to improve student achievement through teacher effectiveness drives implementation of the proposed project, the theory of action model coupled with evidence from expertise development provide a unifying point for convergence and cohesion for both implementation and assessment. Generally, our analogy equates teacher effectiveness with expertise across any domain, specialized professional development with strategies that involve deliberate practice , ZPD mentoring/coaching, collective participation, etc., and student achievement outcomes with high levels of expert performance. That is, pd yields teacher effectiveness which yields improved student achievement outcomes; and, directed practice, combined with other elements like ZPD, collaborative learning, etc. yields high levels of performance—in two domains. Therefore, teachers’ structured development of expertise in literacy, technology integration, and ongoing data feedback analysis has the potential to produce measurable student enhancements in writing—and overall literacy—which could lead to closing achievement gaps, decreasing drop out rates, increasing the quality and quantity of graduates, and increasing college and career readiness. Researchers at neighboring Lamar University have pilot data on a study identifying academic and non-academic factors that affect African American males’ college retention and graduation rate at Lamar University. Their preliminary findings suggest some factors may be traced back to high school and even middle school students. One part of goal #3 will be focus group brainstorming between Lamar researchers and BISD project staff to determine strategies for expansion of their project into the proposed grant project. Specifically, we plan to analyze the extent to which certain academic and non-academic factors predict college readiness for African American high school males. Methodology similar to that applied in the Lamar student which replicates the ACT policy research on college retention (Lotkowski, et al., 2004) and a logistic regression model will be used to determine the relationship between a categorical outcome and set of independent variables such as TAKS scores, Benchmark scores, etc. This data will be compared with findings from the Lamar study of college level students to determine compatibility patterns and to investigate possible sufficient interventions.B2. The extent to which the proposed project has been attempted previously, albeit on a limited scale or in a limited setting, with promising results that suggest that more formal and systematic study is warranted.Although previous implementation of our plan has been limited in scope and setting, our results indicate the need for more formal and systematic study. Earlier trials that examined project strategies and potential for student improvements were designed strictly for practioners’ use and therefore lacked rigorous evaluation. In the regular school and classroom setting, teachers can easily read, interpret, and devise intervention strategies from real time data output formatted in percentages, therefore enriching the teacher-student interactions and the ways that teachers informed students about deficiencies. This opportunistic initial study not only quantified student performance gains, but also provided in-depth insights into valuable student comments that guided professional development content and strategies. Additionally, teachers were able to provide rich qualitative descriptions about how they used the pd techniques, how the techniques could be modified to better suit their individualities, etc. The semi-multiple methods approach enabled us to modify some of the pd strategies in order to add a more personalized aspect to expertise training, thus the potential to enhance effects of pd on expertise and student outcomes (Kling, Liebman & Katz, 2005). Combining qualitative and quantitative data interpretations enriched the scientific value of our earlier work and informed ideas about possible contextual effects peculiar to the ways teachers communicated feedback to the population of disadvantaged children we propose to aid. When Beaumont students used MY Access! teachers found that students really wanted to write more. Both the quality and the quantity of their writing improved. School leadership also found that not only did student writing improve, but also the way teachers taught improved as a result of focused professional development. They recognized that there is an increasingly important connection between writing and overall knowledge acquisition. Further, demonstration of writing skills is key for high school graduation and entry into college. American employers also consider writing proficiency is becoming an ever more essential skill in our information-based economy.(National Commission on Writing, 2004) They report however that 40% of high school graduates lack the literacy skills employers seek. (National Governor’s Association, 2005) Currently, high school students are not being adequately prepared for work or school beyond high school. ?We are therefore focusing our attention on having teachers become more effective in this critical ?area which has a direct relationship ?for enhancing all areas of student achievement.Insights from qualitative teacher and student interviews and focus groups led us to believe that the program was producing substantial gains in factors responsible for student achievement—motivation, meta-cognition, etc. Even so, changes in student achievement and teacher effectiveness warranted systematic study to determine the extent to which those variables were an outcome of the Vantage system strategies or other confounding factors. This program was piloted in 3 Beaumont middle schools during the 2009 – 2010 school year. Although standardized test scores are not yet available for participating students in BISD, benchmark assessments and program data over the school year indicated progressive achievement percentages slightly above similarly situated students who were not exposed to the training. Sample sizes were not large enough to reveal statistically significant differences in teacher knowledge, practice and student writing performance and overall achievement, but anecdotal teacher reports and student comments indicated—at least—perceptual changes in teachers and students that could possibly be linked to our program success. Implementation of the program on a larger scale including high school students should yield a statistically significant effect on improving student achievement. Figure 1, Overall Improvement for Three Highest Usage Schools, shows the average differences in pre- and post-training performance over six writing dimensions for 6th-graders at Marshall, 7th-graders at Odom, and 8th- graders at Austin middle schools. Could the improvement be attributed to the effects of the specialized teacher professional development provided through MY Access!? Is there a relationship between levels of teacher expertise and progression intervals in student achievement? Is there any indication of transfer from writing ability enhancement across other subject areas? Is there context-specific information teachers could provide to Vantage Coaches/Mentors in order to more aptly fit pd training to the special needs of the population? What contextual or confounding factors may affect boys’ The results from our earlier work with program teachers and students has stimulated our interest in rigorously exploring the Vantage program as a mechanism to improve student achievement and a means to add to best practices in content-specific professional development. The schools that received enhanced professional development (Austin, Odom, Marshall), have the highest levels of program usage and largest percentage of improvement!Table 1.All participating teachers took part participated in the following trainings: Essentials of Writing Instruction and Assessment (parts 1-3) and Customized Coaching and Mentoring. Essentials, part 1, taught participants the basic functionality of MY Access! and how to successfully integrate the program into writing instruction. Essentials, part 2, taught participants how to navigate the students’ electronic portfolios, track student growth over time, communicate with parents, and create long-term instructional plans. Essentials, part 3, taught participants how to use the MY Access! reports as a tool for managing both formative and summative assessments and how to create differentiated assignments, within MY Access!, based on data-proven areas of need. During the Customized Coaching and Mentoring sessions, a Vantage Learning certified literacy specialist worked with teachers, in real time, to assist in the effective integration of MY Access! into the existing writing curriculum. The coaching and mentoring process provided teachers with immediate feedback, topics for discussion, and opportunities for reflection. This process engendered collaboration, helped build capacity, and encouraged teachers to share their knowledge with others. In addition, all participating teachers received continual support via Vantage Learning’s Implementation Specialist services. The Implementation Specialist was responsible for communicating the progress of the implementation to all key stake holders on a bi-weekly basis, as well as providing participating teachers with on-going, customized assistance and mentorship via conference calls, Webinars, and e-mails.The end result of the Test Success training series was a group of teachers who were highly skilled in delivering both formative and summative assessments, highly knowledgeable in analyzing the data generated from these assessments, and highly committed to creating data-driven lesson plans that met the various needs of their students. The end result of this change in the teachers’ approach to writing instruction was a group of students who demonstrated a tremendous increase in their overall writing proficiency in a relatively short period of time. For example, the writing scores of the 6th grade students at Marshall Middle School jumped from an overall proficiency of 49%. B3. The extent to which the eligible applicant demonstrates that, if funded, the proposed project likely will have a positive impact, as measured by the importance or magnitude of the effect, on improving student achievement or student growth, closing achievement gaps, decreasing dropout rates, increasing high school graduation rates, or increasing college enrollment and completion rates. If funded, the proposed project likely will have a positive impact, as measured by levels of teacher expertise development related to student outcomes—on student enhancements in writing—and overall literacy—which could lead to closing achievement gaps, decreasing drop out rates, increasing the quality and quantity of graduates, and increasing college and career readiness. Writing—as literacy enhancement—is one of students’ most knowledge-transforming skills and most advanced intellectual achievements that transfers across all learning. Transference of knowledge from thought to paper requires a complex problem solving model of interactions between content knowledge and discourse knowledge where writers analyze tasks, set goals, and use meta-cognitive strategies to bring mental representations into coherent compositions (Flower & Hayes, 1980a, 1080b, 1981). Inadequacies in literacy not only affect students’ performance on school achievement measures, but also tend to be high among students who drop out of school, score poorly on SAT and ACT tests, and require remedial training in college. Students’ writing instruction, analyzed and assessed with ongoing positive feedback within a technology-integrated writing instruction/assessment system has the potential to improve overall school success that would also lead to college and career success. Therefore, we contend that the proposed project’s potential to affect students’ long term education outcomes is rooted in its focus on one of literacy’s least explored, yet most complex activities—writing. In other words, we can “…make the greatest gain in student achievement in the shortest time by focusing on writing” (National Commission on Writing, 1999). MY Access! enables educators to make timely, data-driven decisions for successful differentiated instruction, demonstratively motivates students to write more frequently, and decidedly and independently has been shown to improve writing test scores. MY Access! is the only program that can quickly implement and provide an online writing assessment system for both formative and summative use.C. Experience of the Eligible Applicant (up to 25 points)C(1). Past performance in implementing projects of the size and scope or proposed project:The Beaumont Independent School District has successfully implemented and managed several large federally funded programs without significant cost disallowances or recommendations from outside auditors or funders for internal controls. The District has internal policies and procedures in effect to manage projects of this size, and internal fiscal procedures that include multi-layered oversight with controls for updating.The Project Director has worked on national, regional and state-level research projects. For example, she is a member of the American Psychological Association’s Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education: Violence Directed Against K-12 Teachers Task Force (). From the site: ?“Drawing upon research that has documented associations between school engagement and time on task and aggression behaviors in the classrooms, the task force is operating under the assumption that classroom practices and school-wide policies that foster academic achievement will minimize the incidence of violence against teachers. The task force will produce web-based materials accessible to a global base of pre-service teachers, teachers, and administrators.?These materials will undergo national pilot testing and serve as a research-based foundation to inform education policy with regard to school management, parent and community involvement, classroom climate, and teaching and learning.” We have completed a white paper and are working on a publishable study.She was a member of the University of Florida’s National Middle School Survey Task Force whose task it was to develop, test, revise and implement a survey instrument to measure the effect of several predictors on middle school students’ propensity for violent and aggressive behavior. This project was funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the Task Force completed the survey instrument and several empirical studies have emerged from the findings. Several school districts around the country have used the survey instrument to help students get the help they need. The Project Director has also been Project Director of the State and Regional initiative, Violence: Early Detection and Action, initially implemented in the Houston Independent School District, then regionally and across the state and country. This project was the precursor to the National Middle School Survey project and provided preliminary qualitative and quantitative data that drove an interest in further systematic study of the issue.The local project evaluator is a business statistics I and II associate professor in the business College at our neighbor university, Lamar. His holds a PhD in Statistics from University of Wyoming , and one Master’s degree in Applied Statistics and one in Statistics. His Bachelors degree is in Statistics and has taught numerous statistics courses, consulted on numerous research and business projects, and has published several peer-reviewed articles. His current research is related to academic and non-academic factors that affect college retention rates for African American males.Vantage Learning's MY Access!? was selected as "Best Instructional Solution: Language Arts/English Secondary" at the 2006 Annual CODiE for the second year in a row. Vantage has successfully implemented the MY Access!? system in 6 school districts, 7 high schools, 8 middle schools and 4 elementary schools across the country. Pilot work has been conducted in the Beaumont District at 3 middle schools and the proposed project will modify and expand that work. Limited initial studies in Beaumont ISD revealed that teachers who engaged in site-based training for MyAccess during the 2009-2010 school year showed personal and student gains in overall writing proficiency across all grade levels (4-8). Vantage Learning has empowered teachers in over 32 states to build capacity and sustain performance using MyAccess and a professional development model that ensures both teacher and student success… aligned to College Board Standards. We realize what role professional development and ‘training’ should play in its capacity-building support, how it should be provided, and what should be the respective roles of a systemic change model (as explained throughout the grant) that ensures teacher, student, and parent success.C(2ai). Information and data demonstrating that the LEA has significantly closed the achievement gaps between groups of all groups of students:From: Texas Education Agency: Academic Excellence Indicator System 2008 – 2009 District Performance ReportMet 2009 TAKS Stds (All Tests)20082009African American56%60%Hispanic6869White8285Asian/Pacific Is8889Econ Disadvantaged5860At Risk4249C(2aii). Information and data demonstrating that the LEA has made significant improvements in other areas, such as graduation rates:From: Texas Education Agency: Academic Excellence Indicator System 2008 – 2009 District Performance ReportCompletion Rate (Graduated)20072008African American66.1%77.6Hispanic65.072.8Econ Disadvantaged63.773.4At Risk55.359.5District69.077.8State78.079.1Region81.583.7Annual Dropout Rate% 2006 – 2007% 2007 – 2008Grades 7 – 12 African American4.52.7Hispanic5.02.3Econ Disad3.82.7At Risk5.44.3District4.22.5State2.72.2Region2.21.6College (Mathematics & ELA)20072008African Americans917Hispanics1727Econ Disad618At Risk310District1929State3744Region2736D. Quality of the Project Evaluation (up to 15 points) “It will take multiple social science methodologies to effectively study and find solutions to today's most pressing education problems--such as gaps in student literacy and low performance in math and science” (The Center for Education of the National Research Council, February 2005, Vol 36, No. 2)Because of its potential to affect overall student achievement, our ultimate writing instruction/literacy professional development plan is to build capacity, enrich pedagogy, and incorporate essential technology to enhance teacher performance leading to student success. Primarily, the proposed study will consist of about 105 sixth- through twelfth- grade English Language Arts (ELA) teachers and approximately 60 ELL, Special Education and Content-area Specialists and their respective students randomly assigned to one of three groups-- Experimental Group 1: Vantage Comprehensive (VC), Experimental Group 2: Vantage Regular (VR), or Control Group: No Treatment (C). Group VC participants will receive the Vantage Specialized Professional Development treatment that includes specialized training in content area knowledge and pedagogy; VR participants will receive only the training that normally goes along with the MY Access! system without any special emphasis on content knowledge and pedagogy; and the C group participants will not be exposed to any of the Vantage system training, but their expertise data and student performance data will be entered into the iSEEK Supercruncher? system database and used to analyze the project effects. Ninety-three hundred BISD students will receive MyAccess! subscriptions and all parents will participate in ongoing on-site training/support sessions and structured online training to aid in their children’s progress—according to their child’s group assignment. Because of random assignment, any effects of previous MYAccess! training on teachers and/or students should be minimized; however, years of experience with the program will be one of the factors we analyze to determine effect size. We propose a five year plan to determine the effects of project components on enhancing teacher effectiveness and student achievement. Each semester, we plan to iSEEK Supercruncher? data reports to conduct evaluations on participating teachers and students in order to determine the effectiveness of the program and provide high-quality implementation information and feedback that allow for periodic assessment of progress toward intended outcomes. Data from the system will include student and teacher comments about ways to enhance the effectiveness of the program and this qualitative data will be used to determine the necessity for formative assessments and modifications. We also plan to blend methodologies such as surveys, interviews, district walk-through feedback, coaching/mentoring feedback, etc. to gain rich insights into unique aspects about the how the intervention works for different participants and to identify an special features that may be affecting the outcomes and extraneous to the predictors. We intend to use correlation analysis to check if there is any significant relationship between student performance and their teacher’s mastery of the vantage learning. The correlation coefficient ( r) is a measure of the linear relationship between two attributes. The correlation coefficient is also known as the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. The value of r range from -1 to +1 and is independent of the units of measurement. A value of r near 0 indicates weak correlation between attributes; a value near +1 or -1 indicates a strong level of correlation. An r value of 0.70 or higher is considered to be a strong correlation.Regression analysis is also another technique that can be used to identify the relationship between the response variable and one or more independent variables. A model of the relationship is hypothesized, and estimates of the parameter values are utilized to develop an estimated regression equation. Several tests are then employed to determine if the model is acceptable. If the model is considered to be suitable, the estimated regression equation can be used to predict the value of the response variable given values for the independent variables.Logistic regression (Hosmer & Lemeshow, 1989) is used for modeling the relationship between a categorical outcome and set of independent variables such as ACT scores, Benchmark scores, TAKS performance, etc. This method allows us to use quantitative as well as qualitative independent variables to measure affects. Our main goal of the analysis is to find the best fitting and most parsimonious and reasonable model to describe the relations between the response variable and set of independent variables. Logistic regression allows us the ability to predict the probability of a particular categorical response (i.e. probability of students who are retained at grade level vs those who dropped out). The logistic regression is based on the odds ration, which represents the probability of a success compared with the probability of failure. The method of maximum likelihood (Dougherty, 2002) can be used to obtain the estimates of the parameters in the logistic regression equation. The deviance can be used as a statistic to evaluate the model’s goodness of fit. The model is usually considered reasonable if the deviance is not significantly large. In order to test our hypothesis, we plan to address eight key research questions:To what extent is the Vantage System (VS) strategies improve teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogy;The extent to which VS teachers’ technology integration training affects student achievement in writing, ELA, AP ELA performance, Benchmark testing, college readiness achievement. The extent to which VS teachers’ practice in content knowledge and pedagogy affect VS students’ academic skills in writing, AP ELA performance, Benchmark testing, college readiness achievement.The extent to which college readiness practices affect student and parents’ participation in CAAS practices;The extent to which CAAS practices affect students’ preparedness and expectations related to college; understanding of issues of college affordability and financial aid and college application processes; and level of support from peers and knowledgeable adults. The extent to which varying levels (level of expertise) of PD affect the size of student achievement gains.The extent to which vary levels (amount of time) affect size of student achievement.The extent to which college- and career readiness practices affect student outcomes. Researchers at neighboring Lamar University have pilot data on a study identifying academic and non-academic factors that affect African American males’ college retention and graduation rate at Lamar University. Their preliminary findings suggest some factors may be traced back to high school and even middle school students. One part of goal #3 will be focus group brainstorming between Lamar researchers and BISD project staff to determine strategies for expansion of their project into the proposed grant project. Specifically, we plan to analyze the extent to which certain academic and non-academic factors predict college readiness for African American high school males. Methodology similar to that applied in the Lamar student which replicates the ACT policy research on college retention (Lotkowski, et al., 2004) and a logistic regression model will be used to determine the relationship between a categorical outcome and set of independent variables such as TAKS scores, Benchmark scores, etc. This data will be compared with findings from the Lamar study of college level students to determine compatibility patterns and to investigate possible sufficient interventions.Furthermore, according to INSTRUCTIONS FOR GRANT PERFORMANCE REPORT (ED 524B), page 8, we plan to analyze all project data in ways that make required reporting convenient. For example, we plan to use the ED 524B guidelines stipulated below as one form of data collection and analysis:Explanation of Progress (Includes Qualitative Data and Data Collection Information):For each project objective and associated performance measures, indicate what data (quantitative and/or qualitative) were collected and when they were collected, the evaluation methods that were used, and how the data were analyzed. Clearly identify and explain any deviations from your approved evaluation plan, including changes in design or methodology, or the individual or organization conducting the evaluation. Based on your data, provide a description of preliminary findings or outcomes, including information to show whether you are making progress towards meeting each performance measure. Further, indicate how your performance measures data show that you have met or are making progress towards meeting the stated project objective. In your discussion, provide a brief description of your activities and accomplishments for the reporting period that are related to each project objective.If expected data were not attained, expected progress was not made toward meeting a performance measure or project objective, or a planned activity was not conducted as scheduled, provide an explanation. Include a description of the steps and schedules for addressing the problem(s) or issue(s).Indicate how you used your data and information from your evaluation to monitor the progress of your grant, and if needed, to make improvements to your original project plan (e.g., project activities and milestones) which are consistent with your approved objectives and scope of work.D1. The extent to which the methods of evaluation are appropriate to the size and scope of the proposed project.Although we have not yet made a final determination of our external evaluator, we are considering professionals like, Dr. Chrys Dougherty, NCEA's Senior Research Scientist,??who is the author of Using the Right Data to Determine if High School Interventions are Working to Prepare Students for College and Careers and has written extensively on college readiness, the value of longitudinal student data, and the Ten Essential Elements of statewide student information systems. Our evaluation plan includes: (a) a valid and reliable outcome measure and adequate information to determine whether it uses an outcome that is valid or reliable; (b) outcomes that will be measured in a way that is consistent with protocol; (c) baseline equivalent intervention and control groups; (d) multiple units of analysis in all conditions; and, (e) methods to limit possible confounding effects from factors extraneous to the intervention. D2. The extent to which the methods of evaluation will provide high-quality implementation data and performance feedback, and permit periodic assessment of progress toward achieving intended outcomes.Each day, project data from teachers, students, Vantage associates, etc. will be entered into the iSEEK Supercruncher? to inform formative assessments and provide high-quality implementation data. Each semester, we plan to iSEEK Supercruncher? data reports so that the local evaluator will be able to conduct evaluations on VS teachers and students in order to determine the effectiveness of the program and provide high-quality implementation information and feedback that allow for periodic assessment of progress toward intended outcomes. Data from the system will include student and teacher comments about ways to enhance the effectiveness of the program and this qualitative data will be used to determine the necessity for formative assessments and modifications.D3. The extent to which the evaluation will provide sufficient information about the key elements and approaches of the project to facilitate further development, replication, or testing in other settings. The key elements of the proposed project, expertise development and student achievement will be operationally defined such that expertise development will consist of the specific components of the Vantage system Professional Development program described in goals 1 and 2. Each aspect of the content knowledge and pedagogy components will be defined according to a numerical value that quantifies the extent to which a participant has mastered each aspect and total aspect scores comprise the component mastery score. Therefore, the iSEEK Supercruncher? system analysis can pinpoint deficiencies that impede mastery and indicate specialized re-training. Here, we also plan to use qualitative data in order to examine teacher, student, facilitator comments and feedback as a part of formative evaluations for immediate modifications. D4. The extent to which the proposed project plan includes sufficient resources to carry out the project evaluation effectively.The iSEEK Supercruncher? provides an essential depth to our district-wide efforts to align customized professional development programs with teacher deficiencies and student outcomes. The system has the capacity to quickly identify the specific gaps in item bank, evaluations, walkthrough observation templates, etc. For example, The Florida Department of Education recently elected to utilize this highly accurate, reliable, valid and proven computer-adaptive placement testing system “to develop, deliver and score the state's new College Placement Test. The assessment, which is being customized to align with the Common Core College and Career Readiness Standards, will be used to assess a student's readiness for college-level work and to identify appropriate course placement. Utilizing sophisticated branching algorithms, the assessment will provide both placement as well as diagnostic capabilities, allowing for targeted course placement as well as a useful Response to Intervention (RtI) tool for individualized instruction aimed at correcting deficiencies.” (). According to the website, the system provides participants to quickly “find valid items from which to draw upon to create your next set of exams by excluding items based on any criteria you define (DIF, IRT, exposure and other criteria) At a glance, view all items, properties, authors, creation date, passages, graphics, key, item statistics - whether this data resides in one data location or several Discover items with a specific P+ range, rbis range, and exposure rate Reporting capabilities are unlimitless! For the first time, you have access to view your data anyway you want to.” Although we have not yet identified an external evaluator, the local project evaluator is a business statistics I and II associate professor in the business College at our neighbor university, Lamar. His holds a PhD in Statistics from University of Wyoming , and one Master’s degree in Applied Statistics and one in Statistics. His Bachelors degree is in Statistics and has taught numerous statistics courses, consulted on numerous research and business projects, and has published several peer-reviewed articles. His current research is related to academic and non-academic factors that affect college retention rates for African American males.E. Strategy and Capacity to Further Develop and Bring to Scale (up to 5 points)E1. The number of students proposed to be reached by the proposed project and the capacity of the eligible applicant and any other partners to reach the proposed number of students during the course of the grant.?Approximately ninety-three hundred middle- and high-school students will participate along with about 165 – 170 teachers and Content-area Specialists will participate in the proposed study. To achieve the goals of sustainable growth and scalability, teachers, administrators, and parents will engage a strong, highly replicable data-driven model for site based professional development that focuses on writing, students’ enhanced college and career readiness, and input from parents as incentives that not only drive student achievement, but also ensure clear, transparent, and fair multi-layered teacher evaluations. To this end, engagement in the project will empower the school district to have devoted significant technology and human resources to build the capacity through a variety of diverse but complementary means, including technical assistance, a high-tech search engine (iSEEK Supercruncher), project reports that use data to inform daily instruction, teacher evaluations, and professional development. Of course, the iSEEK Supercruncher? system has the capacity to reach the proposed number of students during the course of the grant as evident in the State of Florida’s Department of Education’s recent decision to use the customized system to align Common Core College and Career Readiness Standards and to assess students’ readiness for college-level work for appropriate course placement.E2. The eligible applicant’s capacity (e.g. in terms of qualified personnel, financial resources, or management capacity) to further develop and bring to scale the proposed practice, strategy, or program, or to work with others (including other partners) to ensure that the proposed practice, strategy, or program can be further developed and brought to scale, based on the findings of the proposed project.Qualified personnel: We plan to expand our research team to merge with a team from neighboring Lamar University to identify factors that predict student college access and success, especially for disadvantaged and at risk students in this area.Financial resources: Local, State and Federal grant opportunities are available for IHEs and secondary schools that study college readiness and closing the achievement gap. Additionally, the Vantage Group has agreed to provide the necessary 20% match for this project as well as additional funding for possible expansion.Management capacity: The school district already has the management team in place to adapt program components into core curriculum strands. The District’s Parent Involvement Coordinator has Parent Facilitators at each campus who will work to ensure the parent component of our project is implemented with fidelity.?E3. The feasibility of the proposed project to be replicated successfully, if positive results are obtained, in a variety of settings and with a variety of student populations. Evidence of this ability includes the availability of resources and expertise required for implementing the project with fidelity, and the proposed project’s evidence of relative ease of use or user satisfaction.?The ability to express one’s thoughts in writing is an essential part of being educated. Writing is not simply a way for students to demonstrate what they know; it is a way to help them understand what they know. A students’ ability to write allows him or her to effectively communicate what has been learned, and directly impacts student performance on state assessments. In order for students to fully convey their content knowledge and demonstrate proficient or advanced levels of performance, they will need a confident and independent complement of writing for a variety of purposes, contexts, and audiences. This proposal seeks to improve student writing through the instructional implementation of MY Access! (), an online teaching and learning program that allows students to write essays and receive immediate diagnostic feedback for improvement. This also benefits teachers by giving them time for one-on-one instruction with students and providing them with diagnostic student data. Staff development assists teachers to implement the program to its fullest potential and improve writing instruction. Developed by Vantage Learning’s expert team of artificial intelligence research scientists, linguists, and educators, and supported by eight years of proven classroom experience with over 1 million students using the program, MY Access! leverages the world’s most accurate essay scoring engine IntelliMetric? along with industry-leading instructional support to positively impact student achievement through writing. By delivering a writing environment with instant scoring, immediate diagnostic feedback, and unlimited writing practice, MY Access! is the motivating force your students need to become skilled, confident writers and improve their academic performance across in any subject.“The evidence is clear that writing improves all academic subject areas. Studies that we’ve conducted at the Center, as well as research from others, reveal that the value of critical thinking, reasoning, and writing is widely accepted yet rarely practiced. Whether the measure is against the frequency of writing, the frequency of writing assessment, or student performance on writing tests, all produce some of the highest correlation values we’ve seen with respect to results.” Dr. Douglas Reeves, CEO and Founder of the Leadership and Learning Center and a leading researcher and scholar on educational leadership and student achievementMY Access! is the key that will help you unlock the writing potential across your learning community and this customized proposal has been prepared to fit your specific needs?E4.? The eligible applicant’s estimate of the cost of the proposed project, which includes the start-up and operating costs per student per year (including indirect costs) for reaching the total number of students proposed to be served by the project. The eligible applicant must include an estimate of the costs for the eligible applicant or others (including other partners) to reach 100,000, 250,000, and 500,000 students.Start-up and operating costs per student per year will depend on final budgetary considerations—including (but not limited to) total in-kind contributions, value of volunteer work from community partners/university students, dedicated time from parent facilitators at each campus, BISD’s business office’s work in fiscal operations, bus services for participants, child care offered by the District, and support from the District’s Foundation, etc. Proposed 9,300 students supported with proposed budget total of $4,976,110.00 = approximately $535.07/student.To reach 100,000 students (same considerations as above)To reach 250,000 students (same considerations as above)To reach 5000,000 students (same considerations as above)E5.? The mechanisms the eligible applicant will use to broadly disseminate information on its project so as to support further development or replicationIf successful, it is our intent to get preliminary and final study results in the hands of as many practioners, parents, stakeholders, and researcher as possible—especially those whose concern is to implement effective practices to close the achievement gap. We plan to disseminate our findings in formats appropriate for the intended audiences and in settings where opportunities for follow-up and replication studies exist. For example, we will develop an easy-to-read parenting handbook guide to help families enrich the home environment with easy-to-implement writing, creative thinking and other literacy development skills activities. We also plan to create grade appropriate workbooks and game activities to encourage families to engage in fun college-readiness and financial planning games at home. The Districts’ Parental Involvement Coordinators will provide each campus with parent-friendly pamphlets, brochures, pens, etc. that emphasize the family’s importance in children’s literacy development and college and career readiness. Seminars, workshops, and television shows will keep community partners involved in the ongoing dissemination of project findings as well as any other useful unanticipated outcomes. This type of dissemination efforts will maintain the level of public interest and motivation in the project to support further development. An important professional mechanism for dissemination and support for further development or replication is the National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE)—of which the current superintendent of BISD is president; and, both Prairie View and Texas Southern Universities have College of Education deans who are the organization’s founding members. NABSE is the largest international organization of educators, parents, and students (college and K-12) primarily dedicated to academic success of children—particularly children of color and otherwise disenfranchised youth. From the organization’s website, , it is described as, “the nation's premiere non-profit organization devoted to furthering the academic success for the nation's children - particularly children of African descent. Now in its 38th year, NABSE boasts an outreach to more than 10,000 preeminent educators including teachers, administrators, superintendents as well as corporate and institutional members from around the globe. Founded in 1970, NABSE is dedicated to improving both the educational experiences and accomplishments of youth through the development and use of evidence-based instructional and motivational methods that increase levels of inspiration, attendance and overall achievement.” The organization’s mission and purpose are consistent with the overall goals of the proposed project in that it seeks to offer Professional Development Programs that strengthen the skills of teachers, principals, specialists, superintendents and other stakeholders; provide information sharing around innovative instructional and learning strategies that have proven successful in motivating African American youth and increasing academic performance in critical learning areas; and, conduct and disseminate promising research programs through the Charles D. Moody, Sr. Institute. ?NABSE offers a vast array of professional development information sharing programs and hands-on learning opportunities as well as invaluable informational resources for African American educators. NABSE has partnered with Marygrove College and Teachscape to offer four (4) Online Masters in the Art of Teaching Degree Programs, special tuition discounts, and free online information sessions where participants can receive a $25 gas card! The organization’s enormous international membership, state and national conferences, research institute and peer-reviewed journal offer a level of influence necessary to support further development and/or replication.The American Psychological Association’s Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education often provides opportunities for task force collaborations with educators on topics related to psychologists’ use of research to address K-12 education needs. According to their website, “The mission of the coalition is to bring together interested psychologists to promote and make publicly accessible applications of the research that psychology has developed to assist the nation in improving the quality of public and private Pre-K–12 education. The Coalition further hopes to influence APA’s involvement in policy making and legislation associated with the educational agenda of the nation.? In addition, the mission of this coalition is to encourage cooperation among those APA entities and affiliates whose focus is on children and youth, and the teaching and learning processes.” We have worked with the Coalition and supported their research efforts on K-12 school related studies such as their Classroom Violence Directed Against Teachers Task Force K-12 () project. Additionally, the Coalition has generated the instrument, collected data, analyzed and wrote the report on the Teacher Needs Survey, and is currently working to bring the rigor of psychological research to practical application in schools through developing language for No Child Left Behind, including on the topic of growth models, participating in annual Educational Leadership Conferences, and providing professional development modules for K-12 classroom management and instructional strategies. We intend to continue our working relationship with the Coalition to expand to national the reach of participation and the capacity to bring to scale our proposed project.Our ongoing relationship with several other professional organizations could aid in broad dissemination that would possibly support further development or replication. For instance, the National Black Child Development Institute, Associate of Black Psychologists, Texas Alliance of Black School Educators, National Council of Negro Women, National Commission on Writing, Houston Technology Center, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, etc. are organizations that regularly provide opportunities and support systems for dissemination of school-related projects. Our affiliation with these organizations allows an accessible portal for unlimited opportunities to further our work on the proposed project. Another dimension of support could come from area institutes of higher education. For example, the participating Districts are situated within walking distance from Lamar University and Lamar Institute of Technology. Over the years, we have enjoyed an ongoing partnership with its teacher preparation program faculty, business and engineering departments, and admissions office. Promising findings from the proposed study will be shared with Lamar faculty and their ongoing input, suggestions, and comments will be considered as the program progresses. We are also in range of two Historically Black Universities (HBCUs) that have growing teacher preparation programs that award advanced research degrees—Texas Southern University and Prairie View A&M University. We have discussed the possibility of partnering with both universities to conduct relevant workshops, training seminars, and data sharing for possible graduate student research, thesis, and/or dissertation study. ?F.? Sustainability (up to 10 points)F1. The extent to which the eligible applicant demonstrates that it has the resources, as well as the support from stakeholders (e.g. State educational agencies, teachers’ unions) to operate the project beyond the length of the Development grant.MY Access! Professional Development and Implementation ServicesA well-structured, focused professional development and training program fosters improvement in student learning on a long-term basis. According to Joyce and Showers (2002), providing teachers with opportunities for practice, observation, feedback, coaching and modeling of essential skills are necessary elements leading to improved student achievement. The proposal features a Professional Development Services and Training model for teacher effectiveness that includes the following elements: (1) A process that includes modeling, coaching, classroom observation, feedback, reflection, analysis, sharing and ongoing support; (2) Work with teachers and students in real time in the classroom; (3) On-the-spot support and feedback; (4) A job-embedded approach to learning as teachers are engaged in daily activities; (5) A focus on learning by doing and then reflecting on the experience; (6) Opportunities for generating and sharing insights with others; (7) An environment that reinforces and expands meaning and implications of what has been learned; and, (8) An implementation plan that promotes immediate application of what has been learned .The site-based teacher professional development model features the following integrated professional development opportunities for Beaumont as part of our partnership for success: (1) Essential of Effective Writing Instruction and Assessment (a three-part workshop); (2) Customized Coaching and Mentoring; (3) MYAccess! ? Trainer Certification Institute: (4) MY Access! ? Classroom Writing Institute; (5) Growing Together: Parent Workshops; and, (6) College Readiness! ? for Families Additionally, this grant features Implementation Support Services that should be considered a “must-have” for comprehensive implementations. A team of Vantage Learning Implementation Specialists are certified trainers and experts in the field, with backgrounds in education, literacy and administration. By using the services of Vantage Learning Implementation Specialist, districts and schools ensure a successful integration program with medium and long-term goals that are aligned to the district’s curriculum and achievement goals.F2. The potential and planning for the incorporation of project purposes, activities, or benefits into the ongoing work of the eligible applicant and any other partners at the end of the Development grant.The school district already has the management team in place to adapt program components into core curriculum strands. The District’s Parent Involvement Coordinator has Parent Facilitators at each campus who will work to ensure the parent component of our project is implemented with fidelity. Professional Development is one of the primary means by which the district will help to build the capacity within both school districts that will allow for replication and scale-up throughout both districts in every classroom and in other districts. Without trained road maintenance crews, highways would crumble. Without trained teachers, school buildings remain empty. Overall, in an estimated 60 percent of projects, training is either integral to the achievement of the goals of one or more components or supportive of all project components. The proposal supports the notion of training in two ways. First, many projects include dedicated training components or training activities embedded within project components. Second, the model defined by this grant provide both school districts with a separate unit devoted to capacity building –the ETi3 Grant Proposal, which is driven by a research-based notion to “build teacher effectiveness” in both school districts to improve student achievement and strengthen the school districts in which they work, and the socioeconomic environment within which they operate. Successful professional development models are predicated on adequate design. Effective design was found to involve three characteristics: (1) Use of appropriate and professional pedagogic design, including opportunities for practice; (2) Provision of follow-up support to trainees to help them implement knowledge and skills acquired; and (3) Targeting of training content, anchored in diagnosis of institutional and/or organizational capacity gaps, formal assessment of participant training needs, and strategic participant selection.Our model for teacher effectiveness training features a strategy for implementation that is well targeted. This proposal allows for organizational and institutional capacity gaps to be correctly diagnosed through the use of iSEEK Supercruncher; thus allowing for specific training needs to be assessed. Vantage Learning will oversee site-based professional development at every phase of project implementation. Our train-the-trainer model will ensure improvements in teacher effectiveness long after the project has ended. All of the resources needed to ensure continued successful implementation will have become inherent to the daily process for the delivery of instruction, thus releasing resources to the teaching professionals left to deliver instruction at each school on a daily basis. Training builds development capacity only when teachers who received the training have adequate resources and incentives to implement successful learning strategies for students in the classroom. Our decentralized approach to professional development demonstrates our partnering commitment to our training and professional development goals, which should translate into strong commitment among Vantage Learning staff and site-based staff within each school district. Upon the successful implementation of the ETi3 Grant, school employees from each district will be able to successfully continue to deliver the professional development required to ensure the continued delivery of daily instruction which has an overall positive effect on student achievement. Hence, all teachers, parents, and students involved in this proposal will have acquired the ability to: receive the professional development which ensures the delivery of effective instruction, enjoy the delivery of “immediate feedback” for student writing assignments, and involve parents systemically long after the funding for the project has ended.Upon completion of the ETi3, both school districts will have acquired through guidance and quality criteria, the ability to maintain quality assurance and monitoring and evaluation required to ensure the continued successful implementation of the grant initiative. This guidance will be applied to all professional development training and support. Our methodology includes: (1) Diagnosis and professional development training-needs assessment; (2) Participant selection criteria; (3) Standards for the use of professional development training sessions and other active-learning techniques within training; (4) Use of follow-up support; and, (5) Provisions for monitoring and evaluation, using iSEEK Supercrincher –which provides specification of performance-change objectives and key monitorable indicators.As an outgrowth of this project, the management team will work with teachers and district leadership to develop a Quality Assurance Plan. Beyond examining student growth over time, the group will work to develop a fair and transparent evaluation process where they will establish levels of performance as integral to establishing a professional learning system. They will also collaborate to more fully develop an environment of trust so that effective teaching is continually enhanced.Ultimately, we will initiate a professional development program that will develop all District teachers to be effective teachers that affect student achievement for all. We recognize that the process must be collaborative, sustained, intensive, and supported by modeling and coaching (Darling-Hammond, 1997). Further, as per the results of findings from a recent study from the National Staff Development Council, we plan to flexibly align our professional development strategies with their findings; professional development should be intensive, it should focus on student learning, it should align with district priorities, it should build strong working relationships among teachers, and inclusion of school based coaching. In our work with teachers we will also integrate curriculum, instruction and assessment into a comprehensive strategy designed to enhance teacher effectiveness.G. Quality of the Management Plan and Personnel (up to 10 points) G1. The adequacy of the management plan to achieve the objectives of the proposed project on time and within budget, including clearly defined responsibilities, timelines, and milestones for accomplishing project tasks.Training Program Delivery ModelThis 5 Year Model addresses how we will support the development of effective teachers including differentiated instruction, driven by a response-to-intervention and the need to better focus on college and career readiness for Beaumont middle and high school teachers and studentsYear 1 - BeaumontACTIVITY/MILESTONESBREAKDOWNTimelineProfessional DevelopmentHigh School TeachersEssentials of Writing Instruction and Assessment – Essentials 1,2,and 3Coaching &MentoringMiddle School Teachers Essentials of Writing Instruction/Assessment Essentials 1 and 2 combined Coaching &Mentoring 3 Groups of 20 Teachers9 Days of Workshops12 Days of Coaching & Mentoring2 Days of Training for 2 Groups of 20 teachers for a refresher training session 3 Days of Workshops for 1 Group of 2012 Days of Coaching & Mentoring September through June2010/2011 September through JuneImplementation Services/Subscriptions“Hands-On” efforts that move teachers from novice to practitioner Curriculum materials/student subscriptions 9,300 subscriptions15 Days off-site support;5 days of onsite supportMY Access subscriptions for students in grades 6 through 12September through JuneParent InvolvementSite-based parent workshops- work with parents to give the child a “jump start” and provide intrinsic motivation to actively engage parents in the learning process 20 SessionsOctober through JuneOther ServicesTechnical Assistance with loading student data- FREELeadership and Orientation planning for principals and key leadership- FREETech training - FREE24/7 tech support - FREEUnlimited Parent Access - FREEYear 2ACTIVITY/MILESTONESBREAKDOWNTimelineProfessional DevelopmentHigh School TeachersEssentials of Writing Instruction and Assessment –Refresher –Essentials1,2Coaching &MentoringMiddle School Teachers Essentials of Writing Instruction/Assessment Essentials 1 and 2 combined Coaching &Mentoring All new teachers - Essentials 1,2,3 3 Groups of 20 Teachers3 Days of Workshops/Refresher12 Days of Coaching & Mentoring2 Days of Training for 2 Groups of 20 teachers for a refresher training session 12 Days of Coaching & Mentoring 3 days of training for 1 group of 20 new teacherSeptember through June2011/2012 September through JuneImplementation Services/Subscriptions“Hands-On” efforts that move teachers from novice to practitioner Curriculum materials/student subscriptions 9,300 subscriptions15 Days off-site support;MY Access subscriptions for students in grades 6 through 12September through JuneParent InvolvementSite-based parent workshops- work with parents to give the child a “jump start” and provide intrinsic motivation to actively engage parents in the learning process 10 SessionsOctober through JuneOther ServicesTechnical Assistance with loading student data- FREELeadership and Orientation planning for principals and key leadership- FREETech training - FREE24/7 tech support - FREEUnlimited Parent Access - FREEYears 3-5ACTIVITY/MILESTONESBREAKDOWNTimelineProfessional DevelopmentHigh School TeachersEssentials of Writing Instruction and Assessment –Refresher –Essentials 3Coaching &MentoringMiddle School Teachers Essentials of Writing Instruction/Assessment- Refresher – Essentials 3 Coaching &Mentoring “Train the Trainer” (To build internal capacity to secure sustainability)All new teachers - Essentials 1,2,3 Per Year3 Groups of 20 Teachers3 Days of Workshops/Refresher8 Days of Coaching & Mentoring2 Days of Training for 2 Groups of 20 teachers for a refresher training-Essentials 37 Days of Coaching & Mentoring7 days of training for 1 group of 20 teachers3 days of training for 1 group of 20 new teachersSeptember through June2012-2013 September through JuneImplementation Services/Subscriptions“Hands-On” efforts that move teachers from novice to practitioner Curriculum materials/student subscriptions 9,300 subscriptions15 Days off-site support;MY Access subscriptions for students in grades 6 through 12/yearSeptember through JuneParent InvolvementSite-based parent workshops- work with parents to give the child a “jump start” and provide intrinsic motivation to actively engage parents in the learning process 10 Sessions/yearOctober through JuneOther ServicesTechnical Assistance with loading student data- FREELeadership and Orientation planning for principals and key leadership- FREETech training - FREE24/7 tech support - FREEUnlimited Parent Access - FREEG2. The qualifications, including relevant training and experience, of the project director and key project personnel, especially in managing projects of this size and scope.The Project Director has worked on, coordinated, and directed national, regional and state-level research projects. For example, she is a member of the American Psychological Association’s Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education: Violence Directed Against K-12 Teachers Task Force (). From the site: ?“Drawing upon research that has documented associations between school engagement and time on task and aggression behaviors in the classrooms, the task force is operating under the assumption that classroom practices and school-wide policies that foster academic achievement will minimize the incidence of violence against teachers. The task force will produce web-based materials accessible to a global base of pre-service teachers, teachers, and administrators.?These materials will undergo national pilot testing and serve as a research-based foundation to inform education policy with regard to school management, parent and community involvement, classroom climate, and teaching and learning.” We have completed a white paper and are working on a publishable study.She was Project Coordinator of the University of Florida’s National Middle School Survey Task Force whose task it was to develop, test, revise and implement a survey instrument to measure the effect of several predictors on middle school students’ propensity for violent and aggressive behavior. This project was national in scope, over 125,000 students from 7 states in urban, rural, and suburban areas participated in the study and it was funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the Task Force completed the survey instrument and several empirical studies have emerged from the findings. Several school districts around the country have used the survey instrument to help students get the help they need. The Project Director was Project Director of the State and Regional initiative, Violence: Early Detection and Action, initially implemented in the Houston Independent School District, then regionally and across the state and country. This project was the precursor to the National Middle School Survey project and provided preliminary qualitative and quantitative data that drove an interest in further systematic study of the issue.The local project evaluator is a business statistics I and II associate professor in the business College at our neighbor university, Lamar. His holds a PhD in Statistics from University of Wyoming , and one Master’s degree in Applied Statistics and one in Statistics. His Bachelors degree is in Statistics and has taught numerous statistics courses, consulted on numerous research and business projects, and has published several peer-reviewed articles. His current research is related to academic and non-academic factors that affect college retention rates for African American males.Vantage Learning's MY Access!? was selected as "Best Instructional Solution: Language Arts/English Secondary" at the 2006 Annual CODiE for the second year in a row. Vantage has successfully implemented the MY Access!? system in 6 school districts, 7 high schools, 8 middle schools and 4 elementary schools across the country. Pilot work has been conducted in the Beaumont District at 3 middle schools and the proposed project will modify and expand that work. Vantage’s Management ApproachOur management approach includes the assignment of professional staff and project management expertise to work collaboratively with the staff at Beaumont ISD, Port Arthur ISD, along with project and participating school staff to achieve successful project results. This team will direct and monitor grant efforts. (Table 1.1).Management ApproachOur management approach includes the assignment of professional staff and project management expertise to work collaboratively with the staff at Beaumont ISD along with project and participating school staff to achieve a successful project result. This team will direct and monitor the efforts of our grant (Table 1.1).Table 1.1Project Management TeamLead Teachers & Parent Facilitators for Goals 1,2,and 3 will be appointed for each school.The ETi3 organization structure features a Project Management Team that will build capacity to drive compliance to an outcomes-oriented approach. This team will track performance indicators against the guidelines specified in the proposal for both school districts, support problem solving when performance is “off track”, engage leadership in driving outcomes, and provide support to Lamar University, Vantage Learning, and local school staff. The “Program Director”will manage the range of new programs and processes designed to improve teacher and leader effectiveness as a part of this reform. Specifically, the ETi3 will utilize Vantage Learning’s iSEEKSupercruncher data management platform to examine student and teacher performance data 24/7 via the web to monitor program effectiveness at all stages in the teacher and leader pipelines by using data to identify and replicate best practices across teacher and leader preparation and development. The Director will oversee efforts to improve the pipeline of effective teachers and efforts to realign the teaching curriculum based upon the data revealed by iSeekSuperCruncher. The Program Director will institute processes and routines that will ensure that performance goals are met without exception. First, the Program Manager will ensure that critical trajectories toward the successful attainment of goals are established and well communicated for both school districts, and that school level goals can be measured at any point in time through the use of iSEEKSupercruncher. Each trajectory will define the expected progress against a particular goal over time. Trajectories will (1) identify a specific goal, (2) specify target metrics and measures of success, (3) identify goals to be achieved over time, and (4) link to alignments in instructional delivery for teachers. The Project Director will ensure that the Program Managers are aware of new routines required to meet program objectives through the ongoing analysis of data derived from iSEEKSupercruncher. Dashboards provided through iSeekSupercruncherwill allow for the easy identification of problems early, a finite assessment of root causes, and a vehicle to promote interventions to address problems in time to accomplish goals.Three Program Managers will report directly to the Program Director. The Program Managers will be responsible for all implementation activities, including tracking Beaumont ISD and Port Arthur ISD’s progress towards goals, identifying promising practices, evaluating these practices’ effectiveness, ceasing ineffective practices, and widely disseminating and replicating effective practices throughout both districts. Lamar University will work closely with the program directors to ensure that all efforts are in compliance with the goals and objectives of the ETi3 Grant goals and objectives. The Fiscal Manager will keep all grant records which protects the Program Manager from misses and/or abuse of federal resources in compliance with Federal Regulations. In addition, the Fiscal Manager will demonstrate fiscal management that establishes economy in purchase and operations of the district(s) and grant program guidelines and requirements; provide ready access to information for purposes of decision-making; maintain fiscal record keeping that provides constituents and the general public with accountability for the i3Grant operation in an easily understandable format; and provide detailed budgeting and management for the overall successful implementation of the grant funding period, ensuring that the entire grant is satisfactorily funded and that costs are substantiated and equitable.The Director(s) of Counselors will provide individual students and groups with career, personal, social and educational counseling. These school counselors will assist students of all levels, from middle school to postsecondary education. They will become an advocate for students and work with other individuals and organizations to promote the academic, career, personal, and social development of children and youth; ensuring post secondary success. Counselors will help students evaluate their abilities, interests, talents, and personalities to develop realistic academic and career goals aligned to outcomes of the program.Elementary school Parent Facilitators are already in place in each school in Beaumont ISD. Their roles will be expanded to focus on students receiving services through this grant. The Parent Facilitator at each school will be committed to working with administrators, teachers, PTO, and parents to ensure that parental participation is recognized as an asset. They will work to increase communication, provide workshops, and promote a welcoming atmosphere that fosters parental involvement and maximizes success for both teachers and students involved in the successful implementation of the grant during each year of implementation.iSEEKSupercruncherUnify disparate information via automated data loadsIndex all data schemas, elements, and pre-calculate each piece of data from unique sourcesDetermine Context by applying knowledge and all inference mechanismsMake Data Actionable by clarifying the cause and effect of different data information sourcesInteract with end-users via simple, user friendly reporting interface and providing dynamic iViews and dashboardsLink action with intentions, targeting district initiatives necessary to achieve student and district success.iSEEKSupercruncher for Project Data Collection and ManagementProject strategy begins with using the power of data to inspect the degree to which students are “measuring up” to standards and making the necessary incremental adjustments to realign the curriculum on the basis of the evidence of what students “do” and “do not” know. ISEEK Supercruncher will get the right data into the hands of the right individuals in the right format to empower staff to make the strategic, tactical, and operational decisions necessary to improve district performance. An early step of the project involves implementing the data collection and management processes. It is anticipated that the bulk of the information will be imported from Beaumont ISD’s management information systems (MIS). Working with both district’s technology and instructional technology staff, the Vantage Learning support team will identify the source and format for each data item needed to support the analysis.The data requirements include information on students and their respective teachers aligned to each school in the analysis. iSEEKSupercruncher will retrieve data from multiple silos throughout both districts. Some data elements include:Attendance, student management, report card grades-Locally housed and managed by TEAMS our SISBenchmark assessments-locally housed and managed w/ the in-house developed Item Analysis ProgramState assessments-Pearson Inform(at this time) and in-house Standardized assessments (ITBS, COGAT, Naglieri )-these tests are sent to the developer to be graded then sent back to us. This data can be found in the student’s cumulative folder.Fluency and comprehension checks-housed with Voyager, but accessed Voyager’s serverTPRI-housed with TANGO, with data accessed through the serverTeacher performance- PDAS- Principal/Personnel Department Management SystemISEEK Supercruncher will provide a data management system with 24/7 access via the web with single sign-on that will be exclusive to this project and used solely in the conduct of data analysis and project evaluation. An overview of our design incorporates the following:Surveys (by students and teachers), evaluations, self evaluations by participants and trainers. These measures can be automated and supported by Vantage Learning Lesson plans completed and implemented in response to the training.objectives 2.1,2.2,2.3)The use of Vantage Learning writing rubrics aligned to state and district rubricsProfessional Development data compiled and aggregated by iSEEK Supercruncher to correlate professional development and student performance. (We will Insert overview of what iSEEK Supercruncher can do relative to collecting and examining data, the ongoing use of formative assessment in order to provide teachers the information in order to differentiate instruction.) Review of iSEEK Supercruncher to evaluate the effectiveness of programs to further enhance student development; use this entire process more powerfully as a means of enhancing performance.Examination of student writing for targeted skill development resulting from professional learning opportunitiesFor each year of implementation, a dedicated implementation specialist will provide on and off site services, which include the following: Help to establish the core school/district MY Access! goals and objectives.Assist in the establishment of a pre/post writing assessment and benchmarking plan Regularly review and report the district/school’s program usage to key district/school contact(s)Engage in ongoing, regularly scheduled discussions with key persons at each district/school involved in the program to ensure effective program integration Training will be offered to parents, community members and to school board members (See Growing Together with MY Access!).Teachers will receive training in connecting MY Access! to the Texas Writing Instruction System; subject area lead teachers will be trained to construct curriculum-based prompts in ELA, History, Social Studies and Science that meet the New Core Curriculum Standards. These prompts will be piloted throughout school districts in surrounding districts leading to the development of IntelliMetric prompt scoring statewide.We will develop strategies that support incentives for teachers whose students achieve higher than predicted proficiency such as stipends, and a menu of enhanced professional learning opportunities. We will employ and expand upon a system of “Classroom Walkthroughs” currently utilized in Beaumont ISD as a performance indicator linked to our objectives for determining effective teachers.(1.1)BUDGET NARRATIVE BEAUMONT INDEPENT SCHOOL DISTRICTPERSONNELYEAR 1YEAR 2YEAR 3YEAR 4YEAR 5TOTALProject Director120,000120,000120,000120,000120,000600,000.00Adm Assistant35,00035,00035,00035,00035,00035,000.00Coordinator Goal #115,00015,00015,00015,00015,00075,000.00Coordinator Goal #215,00015,00015,00015,00015,00075,000.00Coordinator Goal #315,00015,00015,00015,00015,00075,000.00FRINGE BENEFITSProject Director24,00024,00024,00024,00024,000120,000.00Administrative Assistant 8,000 8,000 8,000 8,000 8,00040,000.00TRAVELMileage for PD & Coordinators20,52020,52020,52020,52020,520102,600.002-day PD meeting in DC (4 people)4,8504,8504,8504,8504,85024,250.00Travel-Evaluator5,4005,4005,4005,4005,40027,000.00Dissemination 8,1908,1908,1908,1908,19040,950.00EQUIPMENTComputer Lab Expansion160,000160,000SUPPLIESMATERIALSStudent incentives and prizes1,5001,5001,5001,5001,5007,500.00CommunicationPhone6906906906906903,450.00Office Supplies8508508508508504,250.00Subscriptions for 9500 student for MyAcces & iSeek Supercruncher148,800.00148,800148,800148,800148,800744,000.00Parent/Family incentives/prizes2,5002,5002,5002,5002,500125,000.00CONTRACTUALIndependent Evaluator20,42220,42220,42220,42220,422102,110.00Internal Evaluator36,00036,00036,00036,00036,00036,000MYAccess!147,800147,800147,800147,800147,800739,000YEAR 1YEAR 2YEAR 3YEAR 4YEAR 5TOTALiSEEK Supercruncher150,000150,000150,000150,000150,000750,000.00Specialized Parent Training Consultant57,20057,20057,20057,20057,200286,000.00OTHERTeacher Proficiency Awards/Incentives81,50081,50081,50081,50081,500407,500.00Substitute Teacher Costs45,00045,00045,00045,00045,000225,000.00 ................
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