Shaun Kellogg

The overarching goal of this project is to broaden the pool of researchers that leverage Learning Analytics (LA), a computational research methodology that transforms digital data into actionable insights for the purpose of understanding and optimizing learning, thus advancing our knowledge about STEM learning and learning environments. To achieve this goal, LASER BEAM will build upon the existing NSF-funded LASER Institute by refining, expanding, and repackaging current instructional resources ,and separately at the University of Pennsylvania (including the MOOC Big Data and Education, accessed by over 100,000 students), into “turnkey” curriculum materials that can be used and adapted by faculty in higher education to prepare the next generation of STEM scholars.

The evaluation questions developed for this proposal are explicitly aligned with the strategic objectives of the NCEC. Collectively, the evaluation questions are intended to help NCEC better understand: Q1.How, and to what extent, does NCEC foster effective partnerships with schools to implement research-based programs that support teachers and help students thrive? Q2.How, and to what extent, does NCEC activate untapped talent by connecting Corps members to partner schools’ needs? Q3.How effectively does NCEC train corps members for high-impact tutoring, and how can training better meet the needs of corps members and partner schools? Q4.How effective are ongoing supports provided to corps members, and how can NCEC better support members in-service and in pursuit of public service careers? Q5.To what extent does NCEC implement high-impact interventions that improve early literacy and social-emotional outcomes for students? Q6.How can NCEC improve and grow program services to better serve public schools and children in need?

Minimizing crop loss and increasing output, across the food supply chain, will increase the economic viability of US growers and the global economic competitiveness of industry and stakeholder partners. We have assembled a diverse team across different National and International Universities with faculty that have track records of convergent research, education, and outreach. We will be well positioned to implement a Networks of Networks with diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, experiences, and disciplines to drive research and innovation. Students and postdocs will be exposed to hands-on learning, on-farm technology training, cooperative extension, commercialization, industry engagement, and transdisciplinary education to create a highly trained workforce that is equipped to address food security and safety challenges.

The goal of the Learning Analytics in STEM Education Research (LASER) Institute is to increase the capacity of researchers to understand and improve STEM learning and learning environments through the use of new sources of data and analytical approaches. Specifically, the LASER Institute will focus on preparing scholars from underrepresented groups in STEM to: 1) understand the methodologies, applications, and ethical issues of Learning Analytics as it relates to understanding and improving STEM education, and 2) gain proficiency in R, a popular free software environment for statistical computing and graphics, to apply computational analysis techniques (e.g. network analysis, text mining, machine learning, and data dashboards) using real-world data from STEM contexts. The LASER Institute will be anchored by a week-long intensive training program consisting of hands-on learning labs, presentations from experts in the field, support for research planning and analyzing their data, and opportunities for networking and collaboration.

The purpose of the Track 3 Noyce Master Teaching Fellows program at NC State is to support and retain master teachers in mathematics by partnering with four high-need LEAs (Cabarrus County Schools, Mount Airy City Schools, Rockingham County Schools, and Wayne County Schools), and the non-profit agency, The Innovation Project (TIP) and NC State. This project dovetails with our collaborations with TIP to place highly qualified beginning STEM teachers from NC State in high-needs districts in the state of North Carolina. The project also builds on our experiences from two prior Noyce scholarship programs, to prepare students to become mathematics teachers, and a state NC Quest grant to support practicing high school mathematics teachers to implement new state standards for mathematics. Teacher shortages have been growing in North Carolina and across the country, especially in STEM fields and in high-needs school districts (Cowan, Goldhaber, Hayes, & Theobald, 2016; Podolsky, Kini, Bishop, and Darling-Hammond, 2016; Sutcher, Darling-Hammond & Carver-Thomas, 2016) Podolsky, Kini, Bishop, and Darling-Hammond (2016) identify two factors contributing to these shortages: the number of students choosing to pursue a career in teaching and the number of teachers leaving the profession. Sutcher, Darling-Hammond and Carver-Thomas, make three recommendations to address the teacher shortage: offer competitive salary packages, enhance the supply of new teachers, and improve teacher retention, especially in high-needs schools, through induction programs, mentoring, improved working conditions and professional development. While some efforts are currently underway in the state of North Carolina to encourage more students to become STEM teachers, little has been done to address issues related to teacher attrition.

The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation (The FI) at NC State University’s College of Education proposes to partner with The ASSISTments Foundation (TAF) in the “Recovering from COVID-Learning-Loss with a Platform to Support Human Tutoring” proposal to the US Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program - Mid-Phase Grant program. The proposal aims to scale a cost-effective way for schools to provide high dose human tutoring by matching volunteer tutors with students whose teachers are using ASSISTments mathematics instruction in the classroom - The TutorASSIST Program. In the first 2.5 years of the project, The Professional Leading and Learning Collaborative (PLLC) Team at The FI will develop, execute, and refine the TutorASSIST tutor training and credentialing and the scalable TutorASSIST program administration framework, materials, and administrator training for participating schools. Also, in the first 2.5 years of the project The Program Evaluation and Education Research (PEER) Team at The FI will conduct a formative evaluation of the TutorASSIST training and administration work, using a mixed methods approach based on the CIPP Evaluation Model and Chris Dede and Deborah Coburn's scaling educational innovations framework. In the final 2.5 years of the project The PLLC team will execute small revisions and refinements to the program design and will support hand-off of the program execution to TAF; and The PEER Team will hand-off relevant evaluation instruments and materials to the external evaluator for an impact evaluation study and will support publication and dissemination efforts.

The primary goal of this work is to develop a comprehensive and responsive evaluation plan that details programmatic strategies and intended outcomes, measures for assessing and improving program impact, a timeline of evaluation activities, and an estimated budget. Working collaboratively with TIP leadership, North Carolina Public School Units (PSU), and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI), the Friday Institute Program Evaluation and Education Research (PEER) Group will ensure evaluation efforts for the NC HTLA are: 1.Aligned to the program goals and priorities of the TIP leadership team; 2.Inclusive of legislative and funder-specified reporting requirements; and, 3.Responsive to the context and needs of North Carolina Public School Units. A secondary goal is to document design, development, and implementation efforts during the first year of the initiative using an ethnographic approach. Reporting of these efforts is intended to inform program stakeholders and external audiences of the progress made towards program objectives, design decisions and rationale, and successes and challenges experienced by program leadership and participants.

The proposed implementation project will enable Department of Information (DIT) Broadband Infrastructure Office (BIO) and ORH to develop a comprehensive, innovative, multi-faceted program with regional and local partners to increase access to healthcare for vulnerable populations and disadvantaged groups while simultaneously increasing the economic viability and digital skills for residents seeking to re-enter the workforce and those currently employed. DIT will contract with the Friday Institute of Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University (NCSU) to conduct a formative evaluation of the project implementation and provide data to inform the final playbook development and track outcomes and measures throughout the project.The Friday Institute Evaluation Team will work collaboratively with the project partners to develop a comprehensive evaluation plan to provide formative and summative feedback about the implementation and impact of the grant that align to the goals and objectives. A real-time evaluation approach will be used to assess the quality and effectiveness of the project in rural North Carolina. As the name suggests, this approach to evaluation will offer formative, in-the-moment feedback at critical decision points in the program with an initial goal of improving instead of proving effectiveness (Nolan and Fontane, 2012). This allows the program to use evaluation data to guide and improve its strategies in real time, rather than waiting to make important changes after the program’s conclusion.

The purpose of the teacher compensation models and advanced teaching roles program is to allow highly effective classroom teachers to teach an increased number of students by assuming accountability for additional students, either by becoming a lead classroom teacher accountable for the student performance of all of the students taught by teachers on that lead classroom teacher's team, or by leading a larger effort in the school to implement new instructional models to improve school-wide performance. In addition, the program enables local school administrative units to provide salary supplements to classroom teachers in advanced teaching roles to create innovative compensation models that focus on classroom teacher professional growth and student outcomes. The purpose of this evaluation is to assess the impact of the teacher compensation models and advanced teaching roles program on teaching and learning as described in North Carolina General Assembly Session Law 2020-78, Section 2.6(b). In addition, this evaluation includes a comparative analysis of program implementation in order to help identify and scale the most effective components of these programs. To provide a more complete understanding of the implementation and impact of these programs, the evaluation will use a mixed methods convergent design, in which different but complementary data are collected concurrently or sequentially. The evaluation will be conducted in several phases and will make use of secondary data collected by NCDPI to provide quantitative estimations of the program’s impact on select teaching and learning outcomes, as well as primary data collected directly from Public School Units in order to examine the similarities, differences, and patterns across program implementation.

The Friday Institute Research and Evaluation Team will provide evaluation services for a proposed project entitled, The Undergraduate Network for Increasing Diversity of Ecologists (UNIDE) project. This research coordination network project aims to build a sustainable and interdisciplinary network of ecologists, educators and social scientists to address the need to address how cultural and social barriers impact human diversity in ecology and environmental disciplines (EE). The research network coordination project seeks to build cultural competence into ecology and environmental biology education.