The Teacher Study Group in Vocabulary Project
The Teacher Study Group in Vocabulary is being offered to school districts as part of a research project funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
Instructional Research Group, a highly regarded educational research firm, is organizing the Teacher Study Group in Vocabulary project. Instructional Research Group will provide training to facilitators who will conduct the Teacher Study Group at your school. The project will include first grade teachers from 60 Title I schools from districts across the United States.
How will the project work?
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The project will be conducted in the 2010-11 school year.
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We need 2-10 Title 1 schools from each district and 2 or more first grade teachers in each school.
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Participating Title I schools will be randomly assigned to the Experimental condition (teachers participate in the Teacher Study Groups) or the Control condition (teachers do not participate in the Teacher Study Groups).
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Ten students (with parental consent to participate in the study) from each teacher’s classroom will be administered reading assessments. The research team will administer these assessments.
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All participants (teachers and facilitators) will be remunerated for their participation.
What is expected from each school/school district?
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School and participating student demographic data will be collected from the school database (e.g., EL status, free and reduced lunch, AYP status, ethnicity).
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Schools/school districts will assist in identifying the facilitator (a member of the school’s staff, excluding first grade teachers) to lead the 11 Teacher Study Group sessions at each school.
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Schools/school districts will assist in obtaining parental consent for first grade students from eligible schools.
What happens if a school is randomly assigned to the Control group rather than the Teacher Study Group? What are the expectations for teachers in the Control schools?
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At the end of the study, Control teachers will receive the Teacher Study Group curricular materials and training.
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Teachers must complete three brief surveys.
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Teachers will be observed teaching reading during one reading and language/arts block in the spring. Some teachers will be observed twice.
How will confidentiality of student, teacher, school, and school district information be maintained?
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Data will not be reported at the individual level. All information gathered will be aggregated as experimental and control group data (e.g., teachers in control condition did….).
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Teacher, student, school, and school district names will not be identified or released in any of our reports.