Research Projects

The professional development project provides participants in Jackson County Schools capacity-building experiences that engage educators in opportunities to experience educational use of technology to support their own learning, as well as understanding of the core elements that are necessary for launching successful digital learning programs.  Through targeted technology-rich face-to-face events, online modules, online conversations and virtual meetings, participants will learn how to use digital content, tools and applications for both administrative and classroom use and is intended to help decision-makers  (administrators, technology facilitators, media coordinators, or technology committee members) plan and improve uses of technology in teaching and learning activities.  Using a blended community-based approach, this work provides immediate support for educational administrators who are currently planning or implementing digital teaching and learning initiatives.

NCSU’s Master of School Administration (MSA) is a non-traditional, award-winning, nationally recognized principal preparation program focusing on solving the problem of recruiting and retaining effective leaders for historically low-performing schools.  The research-based program is a model of preparation, early career support, and continuous professional development for leaders committed to leading high-need schools.  Addressing Durham Public Schools’ (DPS) high number of low-performing schools, NCSU’s MSA program is partnering with DPS to create the Durham Leadership Academy (DLA).  The DLA will deliver a customized two-year MSA program with the graduates making a three-year, post-degree commitment to work in local high-need schools, thus providing a robust leadership pipeline and succession plan for DPS and positioning the school system to make rapid improvements in historically low-performing schools.

NCSU is partnering with three school districts, Greene, Lenoir, and Wilson Counties, to create the TIP Leadership Academy (TLA) and deliver a customized two-year Master of School Administration (MSA).  The NCSU MSA is a non-traditional principal preparation program designed to be a solution to the stubborn, recurring problem of recruiting and retaining effective leaders for historically low-performing schools.  TLA graduates will make a three-year, post-degree commitment to work in local high-need schools, thus, providing a robust leadership pipeline and succession plan for the three TIP districts. The program will select Fellows through a rigorous selection process and then prepare principals through a context-specific, experiential program, which requires participants to demonstrate their leadership skills through solving authentic school problems with the support of executive coaches. Program experiences are customized to focus on turnaround principles for low- performing, high-poverty schools and communities.

HIRiSE is a new initiative at the Friday Institute to serve as a Hub for Innovation and Research in Statistics Education. Dr. Hollylynne Lee serves as the director for HIRiSE. Our goal is foster a variety of development and research efforts that improves education in K-16 towards developing future data scientists, statisticians, and citizens who are ready to make data informed decisions. The first major effort in HIRiSE has been the development of a Massive Open Online Course for Educators [MOOCEd] focused on Teaching Statistics Through Data Investigations [TSDI,funded from Hewlett Foundation]. The TSDI MOOCED allows teachers to learn, along with colleagues from other schools, to use a statistical investigation cycle to teach statistics and to help students explore data to make evidence based claims. Having served over 2000 educators from around the globe in the past year, we want to focus on how these online course materials can better prepare teachers and thus impact their students. The purpose of the Networked MOOCED for Teaching Statistics Through Data Investigations is to help facilitate these past participants to become local leaders of a professional learning team focused on teaching statistics and to develop a sustainable way that the TSDI MOOCED can continue to be used by local professional teams for many years to come.

The GAPS (Geospatial Applications for Problem Solving) for Hi-Tech Teens program is a collaborative effort between NC State University, Wade Edwards Learning Lab (WELL), and RTI International. The program is designed to introduce high school students to Geospatial science, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and advanced geovisualization technologies through an intensive after-school STEM learning experience. The GAPS for Hi-Tech Teens program consists of 2 unique 8-week cohorts (20 students) during the academic year, including 2 mandatory contact hours per week, plus a 2-hour open lab where students can work with mentors on project activities, for a potential of 64 contact hours. The program will also include a 1-week summer program focused on college and career preparedness. The four primary goals of the program are to 1) engage students in community-focused decision making using Geospatial science, 2) increase student capacity for creating and using interactive geovisualization technologies, 3) expose students to GIS-STEM related college programs and careers, and 4) support students with tutoring in mathematics and science. Another mission of the program is to reach historically underserved populations in STEM fields, including African Americans, Hispanics, American Indian, and female students.

Student success in the core content areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is essential for the development of an American workforce that can compete in the global economy. In response to this critical need school districts across the country, including in North Carolina, have developed K–12 initiatives designed to inspire and prepare the next generation of scientists, technicians, mathematicians, and engineers. In North Carolina The Golden LEAF Foundation (Golden LEAF) is a leader in the effort to promote and sustain high quality STEM education in public schools.  A key component of the Golden LEAF grants program provides strategic funding for innovative community education projects. The Foundation awarded grants to six district STEM projects that best met a variety of criteria laid out in Golden LEAF’s STEM Due Diligence Guide. The Golden LEAF STEM East Initiative evaluation team is conducting a two-year evaluation in six eastern NC school districts with three primary objectives: evaluation capacity-building work with grantees; ongoing development of STEM education instruments; and the collective evaluation of the grantees focusing on common outcomes.

The project supports the NC Digital Learning Plan[1] related to statewide content, state policies, and continuous improvement activities authorized under Session Law 2016-94, Section 8.23.  The FI is assisting DPI with:

    Statewide Content

• Migrating existing digital resources to Home Base including online course content from NCVPS and NCSSM, and content developed by NC LEAs and charter schools
• Establishing a process for teacher developed and curated content coordinated through the NC Digital Content Consortium
• Implementing NC’s #GoOpen strategy

    State Policies

• Modernizing the textbook and digital resources adoption process
• Forming and facilitating work groups for critical DL Plan policy issues (e.g., ITF certifications, tech director qualifications, Data Privacy, Copyright and Fair Usage)
• Prioritizing long-term funding recommendations
• Identifying priority policy changes to incorporate digital learning competencies into licensure and re-licensure

    Continuous Improvement

• Implementing processes for the continuous improvement of the Home Base system
• Developing and implementing a comprehensive Home Base communications plan that includes a product website
• Building district technology data collection, integration, reporting, and profile platform
  • The transition of the AMTR survey to a robust Digital Learning and Media Inventory (DLMI) management and reporting system.
  • Modifying and enabling the Digital Learning Progress Rubric as a district and school level planning instrument and support program.
• Updating and maintaining the NC Digital Learning Data Dashboard

The project team is designing and delivering professional learning to the staffs at both South Stokes High School and West Stokes High School.  The team is tailoring the technology-rich, customized, face-to-face onsite sessions based on school needs. These sessions will be interactive and build on participants’ prior knowledge.  Project goals include:

• Providing participants with opportunities to move from simple knowledge accumulation to the transfer of knowledge into practice in their schools and across the district.
• Developing an understanding of how digital learning is integral to K-12 teaching and learning and continue to develop a growth mindset.
• Interacting and collaborating with peers who are implementing student-centered digital learning.
• Engaging educators in professional learning communities by establishing and growing their professional learning network.

As part of the NC’s Digital Learning Program, this 2-year project focuses on providing ongoing, job embedded professional learning to district leadership teams, superintendents, school leaders, and instructional coaches across the state.  Using the cohort model, the emphasis is on team-building and developing the skills and readiness to plan, lead, and implement district digital learning initiatives.

The grant builds on a series of projects designed to support the digital transformation of the classroom.  The purpose of this project is to continue providing coaches who have deep knowledge in the implementation of digital initiatives to deliver ongoing leadership support and coaching to GLF-funded sites in 15 historically tobacco‐dependent and economically distressed counties (i.e. Alamance‐Burlington School System, Bertie, Cherokee, Elizabeth City‐Pasquotank Public Schools, Henderson, Hyde, Jackson, Madison, Montgomery,

Northampton, Perquimans, Stokes, Swain, Washington and Weldon City Schools). Project work will focus on leadership development and strategic planning assistance for district and school leadership teams.  The teams will receive guidance, support and follow-up as they implement these complex digital initiatives. The goal is to combine the experiences of oversight learned from the original pilot schools, the Friday Institute’s knowledge of innovation within digital learning initiatives across NC and the expertise of the coaches, to enhance the success of these GLF project. Successful implementation will improve the possibilities of economic transformation in these counties.

The project team is doing an analysis that includes:

• Completing a scan of funding models from other states, with emphasis on states with demographics and funding structures similar to those of North Carolina.
• Developing outlines (in partnership with Exceptional Children Division [ECD]) for several alternative funding models, with models potentially ranging from those with specific adjustments to the current formula to those with entirely different structures and aims.
• Calculating scenarios (in partnership with ECD) for each model (with comparisons to the status quo), with an emphasis on (where possible) differential impacts at district and state levels.
• Recommending strategies for improving the likelihood of securing legislative support for identified funding model alternatives.

The project team will also produce data visualizations to increase the understanding and appeal of the importance of the proposed changes to the current funding formula; vignettes to capture in narrative form the realities of current on-the-ground problems related to the current funding formula; and case studies to connect multiple pieces of the funding puzzle together for stakeholders and policy-makers who may be unfamiliar with details of the exceptional children domain.

The goal of the project is to increase retention and effectiveness of new teachers in North Carolina by providing access to coaches, mentors and ongoing professional development support.

The 3-year project is led by NCSU in partnership with the University of Florida, the Wake County Public Schools, and the Alachua County Schools of Florida. Building on science standards and emerging computer science curricula, and leveraging significant advances in game-based learning, the ENGAGE project will deeply infuse computational thinking into middle school science education with the aim of producing theoretical and practical advances in developing computationally rich science practices. Over the three years of the project, it will directly engage 30 teachers and 5,000 middle school students at its diverse school partners.

To investigate how computationally rich middle grade science education can seamlessly integrate science problem solving and computation, the ENGAGE project will pursue the following three thrusts:
1. Design an innovative curricular strategy and novel game-based learning environment to develop computationally rich science practices in middle school students.
2. Investigate how middle school students develop computationally rich science practices in middle school science classrooms with the ENGAGE game-based learning environment.
3. Develop an evidence-based teacher professional development program that supports teachers in the deep integration of computational thinking into middle grade science.

Colleges and universities around the country are faced with a pressing question: How can we introduce computing in undergraduate STEM education in a way that successfully supports both skill development and motivation for a broad population of students? The PRIME project will address this question by developing and evaluating an intelligent tutoring system that provides automated individualized feedback. With a special focus on students from underrepresented groups, the project has the overarching objective of transforming introductory computing for STEM majors. Effectively introducing computing to STEM students holds enormous potential for shaping the way students develop the computational problem solving abilities that will be critical throughout their careers.

The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation (FI) has contracted with consultants to conduct an organizational assessment of the FI and deliver findings and recommendations that the Institute can use to improve its effectiveness and impact on public education outcomes. The process will entail an interactive and collaborative approach that enables key stakeholders to collectively share challenges and shape solutions.

The 3-year project contributes a critical, missing element to the range of existing formative, interim, and summative assessments by creating and refining a next generation diagnostic assessment, built around learning trajectories and the underlying research in the learning sciences. The level II project in grades 6-8 mathematics leverages a learning map organized around nine big ideas, and 24 related learning clusters. Associated to the map and the CCSS-M standards, the diagnostic assessments map student progress in terms of levels of proficiency in the learning trajectories. The district and school partners, Freehold County Schools (NJ) and Harnet County Schools (NC), assist in refining and testing the diagnostics within programs of competency-based education and personalized learning.

The project involves a collaboration among the research team and two middle schools at a high-performing district in NJ with district leadership mentored in competency-based learning and personalization, and with a brand new middle school in North Carolina serving a large percentage of students on free and reduced lunch, where the process of implementing digital 1-1 learning is in its infancy. The project builds on a current NSF and Bill and Melinda Gates funded project where first version assessment items were written and field-tested to calibrate individual items. The partnership seeks to address four major goals: 1) revising and strengthening the diagnostic assessments by adding new item types and dynamic tools for data gathering and analyzing student solution strategies, 2) studying alternative ways to use measurement models to assess student progress over time using the concept of learning trajectories, 3) investigating how to assist students and teachers to effectively interpret reports on progress, both at the individual and the class level, and 4) engineering and studying instructional strategies based on student results and interpretations, as they are implemented within competency-based and personalized learning classrooms.

The 2-year research project, in collaboration with NC DPI, is an evaluation of North Carolina’s Read to Achieve (RtA) program.  The RtA is a legislatively-mandated program that provides instructional interventions for students who do not demonstrate reading proficiency by the end of grade three. Initial identification is based on students scoring below a cut point on grade three End-of-Grade (EOG) examination; students who are not proficient in reading before the start of the next school year are retained. The purpose of the project is to study the causal impacts of RtA on student outcomes in grades four and five. Elementary grade retention is a growing policy option nationwide for ensuring that students are prepared for upper elementary school and beyond.

Kuwait is a majority Muslim country, with women making up the majority of higher education graduates in Kuwait colleges and universities, but a minority of the workforce. This doctoral dissertation research, conducted by CED graduate student Aisha Al-Qimlass, will begin to identify the factors contributing to women’s decisions regarding whether or not to enter the workforce.  The main objectives of the study are to:  a) determine how Islamic feminism is associated with Kuwaiti women’s career development; b) determine the influence of factors such as age and socioeconomic status; and c) determine the role that factors such as gender-stereotype of occupation, prestige level of occupation, and personal have on selecting an occupation or career. The results of this study will add to the sustainable development of Kuwait by contributing to workforce development and building a knowledge-based economy, as well as supporting a culture of scientific understanding and innovation related to the career development process of future generations.

This project is a collaborative partnership between NCSU’s College of Education, the North Carolina Museum of History, and the NCSU History Dept., to provide teachers with disciplinary-based approaches to teaching history.  The goal is to support the integration of the primary sources made available by the Library of Congress (LOC) across the grade levels in history classrooms in North Carolina. The Connecting Carolina program will leverage current curriculum standards as well as student prior knowledge; and will provide professional development for teachers focused on the integration of LOC digital history resources in the classroom by making connections to state history.  Specifically the project team will use the “Story of North Carolina” exhibit presented by the North Carolina Museum of History to connect American history resources in the LOC collection to our state’s history.  This will enable teachers to build on student prior knowledge while also motivating students to understand American history in a way that is relevant to their home communities and experiences.

In partnership with Eastern Michigan, Southern Indiana, and Concord Consortium, the ESTEEM project focuses on a multifaceted problem in STEM learning: a) preservice secondary mathematics teachers [PSMTs] are underprepared to teach statistical content in 6-12 curricula; b) technologies to engage in rich data analysis and statistics investigations are difficult to use and not freely available; and c) undergraduate mathematics teacher preparation programs do not place enough emphasis on teaching statistics, and their faculty do not have easy access to high quality statistics education materials.

Building on 3 previous projects that focused on statistics curriculum content and online access to curriculum, the3-year ESTEEM project has three primary goals: 1) create online resources for statistics preservice teacher education, 2) design modules and approaches for using these resources, and 3) implement resources and modules in undergraduate mathematics education teacher education programs. The activities related to each goal will lead to both short and long term outcomes to be measured in the project, as well as impact grades 6-12 students’ learning of statistics.

The overarching goal of the 3-year project is to develop a coherent set of instructional practices for teachers and community stakeholders that target motivational needs specific to economically disadvantaged adolescents in predominantly African American middle schools in Durham, NC. This project is distinctive in that this work will help teachers, and engineers, and caregivers to unpack the concept of achievement motivation, thereby equipping them with strategies that are essential for discussing and intervening on specific aspects of motivation particularly relevant to early adolescents. Students will be empowered to substantively contribute to the improvement of the social and physical conditions in which they live by collaborating on meaningful projects that speak to issues they have identified within their own communities. Students will develop a sense of belonging within afterschool environments that support the development of mastery goals, a sense of autonomy and competence, and a view of STEM learning as meaningful and worthwhile.

Outcomes and products from this project will include: (1) a conceptual model for guiding teachers in using motivation data to improve their instructional effectiveness; and (2) an array of theoretically driven pedagogical techniques that will benefit teachers, engineers, and caregivers seeking to support the motivation of students of color during computer and electrical engineering activities. As part of a broader dissemination plan, The SMART Collaborative will contextualize the findings of this project during a convening designed to help community stakeholders overcome barriers to implementing motivationally supportive practices that tailored to meet early adolescents’ motivation needs—needs that differ profoundly based on cognitive, social, and physical maturation levels particular to this age group.

The ASKTM project will investigate the structure of elementary teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) as it is held by novice or experienced teachers, as it is learned in the context of teacher preparation and practice, and as it is used for instruction and to support student learning. The project team will develop a teacher knowledge assessment focused on fractions and decimals and subsequently examine the relationships between teacher knowledge, observed mathematics instruction, and student learning, through applications of recent advances in psychometric methods. The study aims to advance fundamental knowledge of the structure of MKT and thereby offer theoretical and pragmatic implications for the field of mathematics teacher education.

Education and workforce development have been identified as next generation global grand challenges.  Youth populations represent the future capacity of the world, and globally inter-dependent economies rely on healthy citizens to support labor markets. Concurrently, youth world-wide face increasing challenges resulting in spiraling gaps in educational achievement, earning potential, and other heightened psychosocial risks, thus perpetuating their marginalization within society.

Interdisciplinary scholar-leaders across research, practice, and policy domains recognize the criticality of effective career interventions, yet there remains much to be learned in terms of what elements facilitate effectiveness and thus, should be central to funding and policy initiatives. Moreover, there is a notable need for empirically supported interventions as well as clearer connections between practice and policy. To address these issues, the primary goal of this collaborative research project is to identify relevant indicators of success in global career development through (1) developing culturally-appropriate career and psychosocial support interventions; (2) creating capacity building infrastructure for knowledge sharing; and (3) disseminating knowledge to relevant stakeholder groups.

These projects build on the work of the NC Learning Technology Initiative (NCLTI) and further develop and extend the impact for statewide replication.  An essential component of the NCLTI is a consistent professional development approach designed to a) provide educational leaders with the knowledge and resources necessary for planning and implementing successful technology-enabled learning programs; and b) provide teachers with a pedagogical framework, teaching strategies, web 2.0 tools and resources to enhance teaching and learning in the content areas. The NCLTI-PD approach is one that combines face-to-face and online activities, giving participants opportunities to experience educational use of technology to support their own learning, as well as an understanding of the core elements that are necessary for launching successful technology-enabled learning programs.

These projects build on the work of the NC Learning Technology Initiative (NCLTI) and further develop and extend the impact for statewide replication.  An essential component of the NCLTI is a consistent professional development approach designed to a) provide educational leaders with the knowledge and resources necessary for planning and implementing successful technology-enabled learning programs; and b) provide teachers with a pedagogical framework, teaching strategies, web 2.0 tools and resources to enhance teaching and learning in the content areas. The NCLTI-PD approach is one that combines face-to-face and online activities, giving participants opportunities to experience educational use of technology to support their own learning, as well as an understanding of the core elements that are necessary for launching successful technology-enabled learning programs.

These projects build on the work of the NC Learning Technology Initiative (NCLTI) and further develop and extend the impact for statewide replication.  An essential component of the NCLTI is a consistent professional development approach designed to a) provide educational leaders with the knowledge and resources necessary for planning and implementing successful technology-enabled learning programs; and b) provide teachers with a pedagogical framework, teaching strategies, web 2.0 tools and resources to enhance teaching and learning in the content areas. The NCLTI-PD approach is one that combines face-to-face and online activities, giving participants opportunities to experience educational use of technology to support their own learning, as well as an understanding of the core elements that are necessary for launching successful technology-enabled learning programs.

The 2-year project will continue and expand on previous Oak-funded work with educators and increase the reach to administrators, faculty, and students through the following goals.

• Blended and Online Learning for Students, Teachers, Coaches,  Administrators and Institutes of Higher Education (IHE) Faculty:To curate the rich, existing content and develop and provide online and blended learning opportunities, including Massive Online Open Course for Educators (MOOC-Eds), online modules, and professional learning communities, on Learning Differences for targeted audiences, including district and school leaders, coaches, teachers, college faculty, and students (secondary and postsecondary).
• Micro-Credentials: To continue to develop Learning Differences micro-credentials and work with other partners to explore the possibility of an add-on certification for educators and micro-credentials for students and/or schools.
• Resource Hub: To develop a hub of resources, artifacts, and tools around Learning Differences, including modules and resources from the online learning opportunities, for just-in-time access for educators.
• Partnerships: To collaborate with Oak Foundation partners, including New Teacher Center, UDL-IRN, Teach for All, Understood.org, Digital Promise, Youth Build, and Teach for America to support their work on Learning Differences and provide access to the MOOC-Ed to district and school leaders, coaches, teachers, and students.
• Evaluation & Dissemination: To evaluate and research how and why certain opportunities and approaches lead to a deeper understanding of learning differences and changes in practice.

The grant funds the initial year of a multi-year project that will examine the impacts of North Carolina’s legislatively-mandated school voucher program–the Opportunity Scholarship–which is available to lower-income families beginning in SY 2014-15. Most voucher programs in other states have been relatively small in scale, and typically city-based, limiting the degree to which they are able to inform the emerging movement toward state-level voucher programs like this one. This study will provide a deeper understanding of large-scale implementation of a statewide voucher program, its cost to the state, and its differential impact on multiple student populations, including rural students–a group typically unable to access voucher programs. The need for this study is critical, given that there is currently no plan for a state-supported evaluation of the effectiveness or consequences of the program.

Code.org selected the Friday Institute to serve as a network partner to help teach computer science in a local, sustainable fashion. The network of organizations supports a nationwide computer science movement.  Code.org is providing initial funding to help each organization establish itself as a local Code.org professional learning partner.

In collaboration with NC Department of Public Instruction, the goal of the project is to complete planning and preparation activities concerning the School Connectivity 2.0 initiative and to support related cooperative purchasing agreement activities. Project activities include:  1)assisting DPI with translating survey results from the field into a workable cooperative purchasing agreement for digital devices for local education agencies (LEAs) and charter schools;  2) providing recommendations for other opportunities for cooperative purchasing agreements that DPI may consider during the course of this agreement; 3) advising DPI and consulting on RFP(s) development, bid evaluations, award recommendations, and resulting contract management which will, at minimum, include the implementation of cooperative purchasing agreements for ChromeBooks; and 4) developing an RFP to procure a SaaS platform that LEAs and charter schools can use to locate, organize, and share standards-aligned and professionally curated instructional resources.

The implementation of the North Carolina Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) has not included plans to examine the impact of the school choice program on participants’ academic achievement outcomes.  The project will address this knowledge gap by evaluating the student achievement impact of the program, shedding light on issues that matter for public policy, as well as for students and their families.    The evaluation will address the following research questions:

• What is the impact of a voucher offer on students’ math and reading achievement?
• Are the effects evenly distributed for students from different subgroups and at different points along ability and income distributions?

This project addresses the critical need to prepare the nation’s educators for the changes in what, where, when and how students will learn as K-12 education transitions to a digital-age system. To do so, the team is developing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) based upon research-based principles of effective professional development for educators. They are also conducting research on the potential for these courses to provide cost-effective and flexible professional learning opportunities for large numbers of educators.  This work is part of a larger Friday Institute MOOC-Ed initiative which began in 2012.

Economically distressed counties will get coaching resources for the implementation of digital initiatives thanks to a grant led by Emmy Coleman. The one-year $200,000 project, funded by GoldenLEAF, builds on a series of projects designed to support the digital transformation of the classroom. The purpose of this project is to continue providing coaches who have deep knowledge in the implementation of digital initiatives to deliver ongoing leadership support and coaching to GLF-funded sites in 16 historically tobacco-dependent and economically distressed counties. Project work will focus on leadership development and strategic planning assistance for district and school leadership teams.

This project addresses the lack of participation of underrepresented minorities in STEM fields through the formation of a strategic partnership between the North Carolina Mathematics and Science Education Network Pre-College Program (MSEN), the Minority Engineering Program (MEP) and the College of Engineering (COE) at North Carolina State University. The project team is creating a STEM-focused research methods course and summer research experience for minority high school students in the MSEN Program to increase their interest and self-efficacy in STEM research and careers. MEP students will serve as mentors to the MSEN students throughout the research course and NCSU faculty members from the different STEM disciplines will guide students through the completion of a summer research project. The goal of the project is to increase the number of minority students interested in pursuing STEM degrees at NC State.

Dr. Audrey Jaeger is tackling issues of faculty workload and reward system reform through a 5-year NSF ADVANCE IHE-PLAN grant in partnership with the University of Maryland. The Faculty Workload and Rewards Project team will test whether departments that undergo a three year plan to address workload inequality show improvements in the sense of fairness felt by women and underrepresented minority faculty, retention, satisfaction, organizational commitment and balance of time for research versus teaching and service.

Drs. John Nietfeld and Cathy Crossland are creating a technology platform to enhance learning through STEM-based writing. Their one-year $137,000 project, funded by SAS Institute, Inc., explores the use of crowdsourcing to provide students more effective writing assignment prompts which have a structured purpose and audience .

Focusing on the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, the project addresses ways to enhance learning intended to be gained from the typically assigned writing tasks. While assignments tend to be done by students without much thought or intention, research indicates that simply changing the audience and providing students with a more structured purpose will significantly improve writing quality in several key areas including focus, accuracy, the use of details, language, audience appropriateness, and navigational features. The purpose of WRITE LOCAL is to build upon these proven best-practices by leveraging technology for scalability. WRITE LOCAL employs crowdsourcing to ensure teachers and students have immediate access to a large repository of writing prompts that cover the entire spectrum of text types and audiences—persuasive, informative/explanatory and narrative.

As part of this effort, Drs. Nietfeld and Crossland and members of the SAS Curriculum Pathways team are developing a prototype of a searchable K-12 entry document repository application. This work will lay the groundwork for foundational research towards the design and implementation of more sophisticated methods for supporting the developing writer.

Dr. Lee Stiff is working to transform the culture of teaching and learning in the math classroom. The 3-year $500,000 (Project Total), NC Department of Public Instruction Math/Science Partnership grant supports this transformation in Person County Schools by improving mathematical practices and pedagogy. The collaborative project led by Person County Schools is designed to improve teacher content knowledge, increase the use of mathematical practices, improve mathematics pedagogy, and develop a culture of conceptual teaching and learning through delivery of an innovative professional development program to all third to eighth grade teachers. Dr. Stiff is developing and delivering the professional development sessions.

Although strides have been made to promote more equity in college access, many populations, particularly low-income, first generation, and ethnic/racial minorities, are still highly underrepresented in higher education. One contributing factor is that many high schools, especially those with low college-going rates, lack sufficient college-related counseling. In recent years there has been an increased investment in college counseling initiatives; however little is known about the effects of specialized college counselors. This project examines the effect having a college counselor in a public high school has on three primary college access outcomes: 1) the number of college applications a student completes; 2) the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion rate; and 3) postsecondary enrollment. The project uses a nationally-representative sample of public high school students from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09). Using inverse probability weighting, this study will compare the postsecondary application and enrollment outcomes of students who attended public high schools with a college counselor to a comparison group of students who did not have this additional resource. The study will provide insights into the effectiveness of college counselors, assist schools in making decisions about distribution of limited resources, and highlight practices that can be replicated on a larger scale.

This project explores how the Obama Administration is using its power to grant waivers from education policies and assesses whether they are using this power differently than previous administrations and/or other sectors (e.g., health or welfare).  Specifically, the case study project focuses on the 2011 US Dept. of Education’s move to allow states the opportunity to apply for more flexibility from No Child Left Behind (NCLB).  States could request release from NCLB accountability in exchange for enacting various education policy reforms.  The goal of the project is to understand how these waivers fit into the original Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) design.  The approach focuses on analyzing the shifts in more recent governance as a way of exploring the political values placed on educational policy at the federal level and how this has shaped state education policy.   The analyses in this project will not only shed light on the ESEA waivers in relation to waivers in other areas of the government, but also on the future of educational governance and social decision-making.

NC DHHS’ Community Transitions Institute (CTI) is designed to ensure quality transition practices and effective integration of physical, behavioral, and long-term services for transitioning individuals.  The NCSU project team will assist in the first phase of the institute by providing project management of professional development opportunities for transition professionals, creation of a knowledge base (a secure online learning community), project evaluation, and the development of a tentative curriculum framework for future use.

The Central Carolina Regional Education Service Alliance (CCRESA), representing 18 districts, is exploring how to support districts most effectively in their work around digital and blended learning. The Friday Institute is providing assistance with this effort, building on its extensive professional learning experiences in understanding and implementing digital and blended learning for district and school leaders, instructional technology facilitators and coaches, and teachers. The initial phase of this work includes project planning, convening a meeting with representatives from the Technology and Curriculum & Instruction Councils, and supporting the CCRESA as they develop a plan for this long-term work.

The project team is providing professional development for high school mathematics teachers to deepen their understanding of mathematics which is foundational to and addressed in the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS-M). The professional development also engages teachers in learning more about: a) student learning of particular mathematical concepts; b) eight research-based teaching strategies to support student learning and use of the Mathematical Practices; and c) uses of technology to support student reasoning and sense making of mathematics.  The professional development program will serve as many as 18 high school mathematics teachers from five high-needs Wake County high schools. These teachers will participate in five graduate courses in mathematics and mathematics education that will engage them in deepening their knowledge of mathematics content that is typically difficult to teach or is emphasized in new ways with Common Core. These courses will be developed collaboratively and implemented by faculty in the Colleges of Education and Sciences.

Project ATOMS addresses the critical need for longitudinal research on the impact of teacher education.  The team is evaluating NC State’s STEM-focused elementary teacher preparation program.  The findings have the potential to redefine how we prepare prospective educators to teach mathematics and science to young children.

Through a mixed methods study using multi-level modeling and qualitative techniques, the project illustrates teachers’ development through their preparation program and into teaching, and the relative effects of teachers’ content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, self-efficacy, instructional performance and teacher education program features on the class- and student-level STEM learning of K-5 students.  This knowledge has the potential to transform the ways in which teachers are prepared to teach STEM content, to produce a model of teacher development that is based on longitudinal study and allows for the possible adoption of the ATOMS model by other teacher education programs across the nation, and to affect instructional practices in K-5 settings.

The purpose of the project is to creatively integrate longitudinal evaluation with innovation within NC State’s K-12 STEM outreach programs, particularly those funded by NSF, to help ensure the breadth and depth of the future U.S. STEM workforce. The vision for MISO is an integrated institutional structure that will allow pre-college programs to think and act strategically to meet the goals below.
● Provide an innovative network of support and communications among University-based outreach project directors and educational evaluation experts.
● Develop and demonstrate a system of data-driven planning and analysis.
● Use the longitudinal assessment of outreach participant outcomes within the university-wide outreach learning community to support more seamless transitions across critical educational junctures.
● Broaden participation among underrepresented groups in pre-college STEM outreach activities through integrated recruitment and support strategies.