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Research & Evaluation Initiatives
Below, are summaries of Battelle for Kids' current value-added research and evaluation initiatives.
SOAR Validation Research: Is SOAR Making a Difference?
The Voinovich Center at Ohio University conducted a SOAR match study to measure the effects districts that have access to value-added data have on student achievement. The primary research question leading this study related to “What effect does SOAR participation have on student achievement?” Results indicated that districts that implemented more fully value-added information, with obvious leadership support, showed statistically significant results in student achievement as compared to non-SOAR districts. Enough evidence from this study has surfaced to warrant a more in-depth study into district value-added implementation intensity and fidelity effects on student achievement. The Voinovich Center has applied to the U.S. Department of Education to fund a larger study of Ohio’s school districts’ value-added implementation effects on academic performance.
Turnaround Schools Study
Battelle for Kids recently conducted a mixed-method study of principal perceptions on factors contributing to distinct, rapid changes in school performance. Under the premise that a qualitative change in a school’s effectiveness from one year to the next likely is due to a systemic change in personnel, pedagogy and/or curriculum (Bratton, Horn and Wright, 1996), Battelle for Kids subjected a related hypothesis to empirical study: “Do schools that demonstrate distinct improved school effectiveness across adjacent years exhibit different systemic changes than schools that exhibit distinct decreased school performance across the same years?” The sample consisted of 60 schools, which had flipped rates of student growth from one year to the next (“above” typical progress to “below” typical progress, and vice-versa).
To view a copy of the study, click on the pdf file below.
For more information, contact Dr. Mary Peters, Director of Value-Added Services, at (614) 481-3141.
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