Dolly+Fernandes

XYZ High School (XYZHS) is experiencing a human performance gap in the academic performance of tenth grade students on the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards. I will propose viable interventions that will increase student engagement through the incorporation of educational technology in instruction that, in turn, will improve academic performance.
 * Introduction**

**XYZ High School* Overview** // The mission of XYZHS is to provide each student a diverse education in a safe and supportive environment that promotes respect, self-discipline, creativity, academic excellence and service to the community. The teachers and staff strive to work with parents and the community to assist students in developing skills essential to becoming independent adults who will succeed and contribute responsibly to their community. //

XYZHS opened in Tucson, Arizona in 2003 and currently serves a population in which 91% are Latino, 5% are White, 2% are Black, 1% are Native American and less than 1% are Asian. Over 80% of the population qualify for free and reduced lunch and XYZHS receives additional support through a schoolwide Title I program.

The school serves young people for whom traditional schools have not been effective and, predictably, will not be in the future. As such, essentially all students meet one or more of Arizona's definition of an alternative school. That is, they have behavioral issues, have dropped out or are likely to drop out, are pregnant or parenting, have a history of academic failure, or have been adjudicated.

The individuals I believe that can offer the best insight into the performance program are the School Principal and the Assistant Principal charged with overseeing curriculum and instruction in the core academic areas.

**Description of Performance Gap** On average, only 42% of XYZHS tenth graders met or exceeded the tenth grade standards in reading (41%), writing (45%), and math (40%), as measured by the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) in the spring of 2009. XYZHS is labeled a “performing” school by Arizona Department of Education based on adequate yearly performance (AYP) even though approximately 58% of tenth graders are not performing at grade level. To have 100% of the students performing at grade level is idealistic but probably not realistic considering the transient and high-risk nature of the population being served. Therefore XYZHS will improve the performance of tenth graders in reading, writing and math as measured by the spring administration of AIMS, each year beginning 2011, until 70% of tenth graders meet or exceed standards in 2013. Once XYZHS reaches 70% performance, new benchmarks and goals will be created.

**Cause Analysis of Performance Gap** XYZHS teachers of core subject areas are highly qualified and certified. Classroom observations, review of lesson plans, and performance evaluations indicate that the teachers have aligned their instruction with the state standards. All teachers differentiate instruction and offer remediation although at varying levels and frequency. Mandatory workshops in reading, writing, and math are held on a quarterly basis to assist those students not meeting standards as measured by benchmark assessments. A review of student performance indicates that many students are able to increase their academic performance in the areas of reading, writing, and math at a rate of one and a half years with each school year which is fairly significant considering most students enter in excess of two years behind their grade level. Additionally, XYZHS is a closed campus that is monitored by highly visible administrators and an off-duty uniformed police officer with exceptionally clean facilities with classroom disruptions and behavior referrals kept to a minimum. Yet, there continues to be a performance gap at XYZHS.

The Youth Truth survey conducted in October of 2009 showed that students at XYZHS found their teachers to be knowledgeable about their subject areas, that their teachers cared about their schooling and allowed them opportunities to improve their grades, but that they were bored in class. Low levels of student engagement that plague XYZHS are consummate with that of the findings from the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University. The survey conducted by the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University, 2009 High School Survey of Student Engagement, shows that 66 percent of the students surveyed said they are bored on at least a daily basis in school, with 17 percent reporting that they are bored in every class.

These are important findings when considering cause for academic performance gaps because student engagement is the interest that students have and maintain during instruction. Since engaged students are active participants in their learning, rates of student engagement impact student achievement. Rigorous and relevant lessons that consist of collaborative assignments and opportunities to individualize the learning and demonstration of understanding through the implementation of technological tools increase student engagement and thereby increase student performance. With typical causes of low student engagement such as classroom disruptions and instruction that is either too hard or too easy being nearly nonexistent at XYZHS, the potential causes for low student engagement are assignments that lack collaborative and individualized components on a platform that students typically engage with outside of the classroom.

Additional information needed to plan an appropriate intervention includes but is not limited to: a list of available resources (technology, professional development, instructional materials), benchmark assessment data, full results of Youth Truth survey, and end of year teacher survey.

**Potential Solutions to Address and/or Eliminate Cause** XYZHS needs to increase the rate of student engagement in order to improve upon student performance as indicated by AIMS. This can be achieved through the implementation of collaborative groupings and assignments; the individualization of learning and how that learning is demonstrated; and the incorporation of technological tools to bring about the previously stated solutions while also seeking to bring the technologies that students use outside of the classroom, into the classroom. These solutions are also in keeping with the mission of XYZHS to provide a diverse educational experience.

Some of the most effective ways to implement these instructional changes include the employment of Web 2.0 tools, course management systems (CMS), and project and/or problem based learning (PBL). This can be accomplished through the implementation of online professional development; face-to-face training and workshops on instructional design; lesson planning; and educational technology.

**Proposed Interventions to Address and/or Eliminate Cause** The proposed interventions seek to address and potentially eliminate the human performance gap, the academic achievement of XYZHS students as measured by AIMS at XYZHS. The most evident cause of this performance gap is the lack of student engagement, which can be increased through the implementation of various technologies in the classroom that allow for more individualization and collaborative learning opportunities.

**Low-Cost Strategy: Online Professional Development** This strategy seeks to increase the rate of student engagement through the implementation of Web 2.0 tools that allow students to work in collaborative groups and individualize instruction and the demonstration of knowledge. Teachers and administrators will gain knowledge of and experience in working with Web 2.0 such as wikis, blogs, and social media through attendance in online professional development offered by TeacherLine ([]). Attendees will also learn how to plan lessons that implement these tools and layer it with the tools that are already present in the classroom such as interactive whiteboards, projectors, and clicker response systems. The online professional development for teachers will consist of attendance in two online professional development courses: Practice Learning Online with TeacherLine and Communicate and Collaborate Online. The Practice Learning Online course is a two-hour course that is prerequisite to Communicate and Collaborate Online that introduces enrollees to online learning along with an introduction to various tools and platforms, which are part of the experience. Communicate and Collaborate Online is a 30-hour course where enrollees learn about Web 2.0 tools for communication and collaboration; methods for creating and participating in educational learning networks and online collaborative projects; and creating a project plan for use in the classroom. The online professional development for administrators will consist of attendance in two online professional development courses: Practice Learning Online with TeacherLine and The Computer for Personal Productivity. The Computer for Personal Productivity is a 30-hour course in which enrollees learn about Web 2.0 tools for communication, lesson planning, and managing information. While this course is designed for teachers, it will provide an opportunity for administrators to learn new ways to manage communication with all stakeholders and provide them their own learning experience that may later turn into professional development facilitation opportunities. TeacherLine presents professional development course offerings through the LCMS, Moodle, which will also serve to expose attendees to additional technological tools that may be of future interest. Since XYZHS is a charter school that is not affiliated with a district and has a total teaching and administrative staff of 24, the cost of intervention would be approximately $199 per person for up to 30 hours (there is no fee for Practice Learning Online with TeacherLine) for a total of $4,776. Eleven of the twelve classrooms at XYZHS are equipped with five student computers, one teacher computer, an interactive whiteboard, projector, and a document camera with two laptop carts and two clicker response systems available by reservation amongst a maximum of twelve classrooms throughout the day (there is a morning session and an evening session), one classroom is fitted with 30 computers, so there is no need for additional hardware purchases for this intervention. **Medium-Cost Strategy: Course Management System** This strategy adds to the previous strategy with the incorporation of a platform that will house student and teacher created blogs, wikis, podcasts, web pages, instructional materials, and the like while also allowing for both synchronous and asynchronous communication options through the use of a LCMS, Moodle. The purpose of this strategy is to increase student engagement by adding increased opportunities for communication and collaboration along with unlimited access to instructional materials and the embedding of multimedia in those lessons to the implementation Web 2.0 tools. The additional costs associated with this strategy include $5,500 annually for hosting on a dedicated server and two days each semester of face-to-face training on course and web page creation at $4,800 annually. A teacher will also be designated the Moodle Coordinator and receive a $1,800 semester stipend. The total cost for implementing this strategy is approximately $18,676. **High-Cost Strategy: Project/Problem Based Learning** This strategy will significantly increase the amount of control students have over their own learning, demonstration of knowledge, and relevance of study along with rates of student engagement by adding PBL as an instructional design model to the previous strategies. The additional costs associated with this strategy consist of four days of training in PBL divided amongst each semester’s preservice days plus resources for design and remediation (for those students unable to read, write, or work independently) at $5,500 and additional online professional development workshop offerings with an increase of 20 hours of access per enrollee at $2,400. The total for those trainings and workshops equal $26,576. The remaining $23,424 of the $50,000 budget will be used for the purchase of 75 additional netbooks and carts (XYZHS WiFi is currently capable of managing full connectivity so there will be no additional cost). What means is 220 of the 360 students, not including the 30 attending physical education class, that attend the morning session of XYZHS and all of the students that attend the evening session will have access to the Internet.

**Selected Intervention Strategy** Based on the input provided by the learning community and the feedback of XYZHS staff on the teacher survey, I have opted to go with the Low-Cost Strategy of incorporating Web 2.0 tools into instruction with training and support available through online professional development. This strategy was also selected because of its potential for quick adoption and ability to generate long lasting instructional change as opposed to the implementation of the LCMS or PBL which may be met with more resistance due to increased workload and may not diffuse. The Low-Cost Strategy will require some revisions prior to presentation such as the addition of an incentive structure for teachers who both participate in professional development and incorporate Web 2.0 tools in their instruction.

**Justification for Intervention Strategy** The Low-Cost Intervention Strategy of increasing student engagement through the implementation of Web 2.0 tools and training provided through online professional development strength comes from the simplicity of the intervention; the ease of implementation and the correlation of applicable training on such tools and their implementation in instruction. The weakness of this strategy lies in that attendance is as one chooses, leaving it to be completed later rather than sooner. However that weakness can be overcome through benchmarking and the implementation of an incentive program.

The Mid-Cost Intervention Strategy of adding both multimedia and Web 2.0 tools and housing lessons using Moodle to individualize the learning experience strengths lie in the significant increase of the use of technology in instruction but its weaknesses are significant. This is an intervention that requires a lot of work to be done by the teachers and that would have a better chance of adoption if teachers were trained before summer break so that they would have time to build their classes but with high rates of teacher attrition, that is not an option. The High-Cost Intervention Strategy is the Cadillac of interventions with strengths in increasing engagement through self-directed study with the implementation of PBS and Web 2.0 tools; giving more control of the learning experience to the student by posting lessons and resources on Moodle; and providing greater access to the Internet through netbooks purchases. The weakness in this intervention is the amount of information that is to be taken in and implemented by teachers.

While I believe the Mid-Cost Intervention Strategy to have the lowest potential for successful adoption, I believe that the High-Cost Intervention (which includes the Mid-Cost Intervention) has a better chance for success because it requires and complete overhaul of how instruction is designed at XYZHS that is fitting of the utilization of Moodle. In order words, using Moodle won’t be seen as another thing to do but rather part of the change in instructional design.

The results of the teacher feedback survey, which indicated that less time should be allocated on professional development and meetings and more time provided to plan for instruction; plus the principal’s preference to push change at a reasonable pace rather than a complete overnight overhaul and the ease of implementing a Web 2.0 tools, especially when the administration is evaluating teachers on the use of technology in the classroom, make the Low-Cost Intervention Strategy the intervention of choice. Although that intervention is slated for only one year of intervention, I do believe that the tools learned and utilized in instruction will reach beyond the year that online professional development is available to teachers and administrators.

**Project Manager Responsibilities** As a project manager for this intervention strategy, I will be charged with: mapping out the intervention so that others are able to understand what, when, and how changes are to occur; delegating responsibilities to others; overseeing the budget; and ensuring outcomes. The position of project manager is a temporary position and since it is that the intervention selected is projected to be in place for a year, I expect that I will remain in that position for the length of the school year.

The resources that will be used for this intervention are minimal. The service is an online professional development program that is managed by an outside vendor therefore I will ensure its continued availability. I will also work the vendor to set up a means in which to track teachers and administrators login times and activity on the site. I will also work with the principal to set up an incentive structure and will position myself to manage it if she decides that would be best. Lastly, I will initiate contact with those who have not logged onto the site to determine if they are in need of a computer or Internet access or if there are other issues preventing them from participating.

Information regarding this intervention will be kept in a manner that leaves the intervention purpose, goals, benchmarks, evaluation data, and incentive distribution information readily accessible to all those that are participants in the intervention. Tracking of participation in professional development will also be kept accessible but the names and any other identifying information will be kept confidential. All shared information will be secured so that only those with permissions will be able to edit information and the original copies of everything will be kept with me. As far as product management software goes, that is a cost that had not been considered so the software that will be utilized will be that which is currently available, the standard Microsoft Office® offerings.

**Financial and Budget Information** Implementation of the online professional development through PBS TeacherLine for 24 teachers and administrators totals $4776. Each participant is entitled to 30 hours of professional development throughout the academic school year. The 30 hours does not include professional development consisting of introductory courses such as Conducting Internet Searches and Web-based Email that will be provided through an additional open source program. PBS TeacherLine is a web-based program therefore not requiring the purchase of any additional hardware or software. Teachers without home computers will be allowed to borrow a laptop for home use. Teachers without Internet access are able to attend online at XYZHS during non-scheduled hours or in WiFi hotspots with school laptops, which are equipped with WiFi modems.

**Technical Information** XYZHS is equipped to handle full connectivity through wired and wireless connections. Teachers are provided with a dedicated computer in their classroom and all teachers report having a computer and Internet access at home. No additional hardware, software, or technological support is required for the implementation of online professional development.

**Project Evaluation** The success of the online professional development on increasing student engagement will be measured using a variety of different instruments. Participation in online professional development will be monitored; increased use of technology in the classroom through the implementation of Web 2.0 and collaborative assignments will be determined through review of lesson plans and classroom observations and teacher evaluations; student reported engagement will be assessed through quarterly surveys and the annual YouthTruth survey; and academic impact will be measured through the semester’s administration of benchmark testing and the annual administrations of AIMS on tenth grade students.

**Formative Assessments** Formative assessments will serve to gather data and measure progress toward benchmarks and end goal. The teacher observation and evaluation forms will be modified to include use of Web 2.0 and collaborative assignments in instruction and a student survey will be distributed on a quarterly basis that also seeks to determine the rate of adoption of Web 2.0 tools and collaborative assignments along with rates of engagement. *Teacher evaluation just obtained and completed draft of revision will be posted as soon as possible.

**Summative Assessments** The summative assessments that will be used to evaluate the success of this intervention strategy are formal and/or proprietor evaluations therefore copies are not available for distribution. These include: YouthTruth survey, benchmark testing (Galileo), and AIMS.

** Supporting Documents ** **XYZHS Performance Standards – Addendum** Standard 1: The teacher creates and maintains a learning climate that supports the development of students’ abilities to meet Arizona’s academic standards. Element 3. Utilizes available staff, technology, materials, equipment, and other resources to support learning objectives. Evidence and examples may include: § Prepares legible materials and assures that all students can view demonstrations and examples § Utilizes available resource staff to provide support to the instructional program § Guides paraprofessionals so that the majority of their time is spent in instructional interaction with students (if applicable) § Uses district technology programs for reporting student progress and attendance § Adds: Employs web based tools to support instruction through student and/or class wikis, blogs, or discussions Qualified Evaluator Comments:

Standard 2: The teacher implements and manages instruction that develops students’ abilities to meet Arizona’s academic standards. Element 5. Uses strategies for differentiated instruction. Evidence or examples may include: § Organizes teaching concepts using a multi-sensory approach § Adds: Methodizes teaching and learning around concepts of distributed learning § Subtracts: Uses grouping strategies to address a variety of instructional tasks and student needs § Adds: Implements collaborative grouping in order for students to capitalize on their strengths, monitor progress, and accurately self assess § Applies real-world situations to tasks and assignments § Ensures that students are able to describe the why and how of their responses § Utilizes group discussions to allow students to explore relevance of instruction § Uses students’ personal experiences to develop schemas for living Qualified Evaluator Comments:

Rate the following statements using the scale below 1. How often are you bored in school? A B C D E 2. How often are you bored in class? A B C D E 3. I am engaged in class when teachers use: 4. I am engaged in class when I get to participate in: 5. My teachers and their lessons engage me. A B C D E 6. My teachers assign group work A B C D E  7. My teachers assign wikis, blogs, and/or online discussion posts A B C D E  8. My teachers assign podcasting or video A B C D E  9. My teachers participate in the wikis, blogs, and/or online A B C D E  discussion posts Please share any additional comments or recommendations you may have:
 * Student Engagement Survey**
 * In class discussions A B C D E
 * Online discussions A B C D E
 * Quizzes and Tests A B C D E
 * Lectures A B C D E
 * Wikis and/or Blogs A B C D E
 * Multimedia such as video and/or audio A B C D E
 * In class discussions A B C D E
 * Online discussions A B C D E
 * Wikis and/or Blogs A B C D E
 * Podcasting A B C D E


 * Teacher Incentive Program **

Incentive schedule for expedited completion of TeacherLine’s Communicate and Collaborate Online course

Incentive schedule for implementation of Web 2.0 tools for communication and collaboration in classroom instruction and assignments as evidenced by lesson plans, observations, and student survey (if applicable) **Resources** American Charter Schools Foundation. (n.d.) Alta Vista High School. Retrieved from []

Chevalier, R. D. (2007). A manager's guide to improving workplace performance. New York: American Management Association

Davis, M. R. (2009). Online professional development weighted as cost-saving tactic. //Digital Directions: Trends and Advice for K-12 Technology Leaders.// Retrieved from [|__http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2009/03/13/04ddprofdev.h02.html__]

Januszewski, A., & Molenda, M. (Eds.). (2008) //Educational technology: A definition with commentary//. New York, NY: Routledge.

Rebora, A. (2010, July 1). News flash: High school students are bored [Web log post]. Retrieved from [|__http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2010/07/news_flash_high_school_students_are_bored.html__]

Yazzie-Mintz, E. (2010). Charting the path from engagement to achievement: A report on the 2009 High School Survey of Student Engagement. Bloomington, IN: Center for Evaluation & Education Policy. Retrieved from: __HSSSE_2009 Report_061410_final.fm__


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