Contents:

• LSC Year Nine Cross-site Report
• 2003-04 Data Collection
• A Summary of the January Lead Evaluator Meeting

LSC Year Nine Cross-site Report

The yearly cross-site report, Local Systemic Change through Teacher Enhancement: Year Nine Cross-Site Report, will be made available by the end of March.  The report will be posted in the News, Reports, and Presentations section of the HRI LSC website and copies of the report will be sent to each project.

2003-04 Data Collection

Spring Data Collection

All projects should have received Principal Questionnaires and notification of the online availability of their teacher interview samples.  Projects that are scheduled to administer Teacher Questionnaires and conduct classroom observations should have received those materials, as well.

Questionnaires

During the spring, projects should administer their project-specific LSC Principal and Teacher Questionnaires.  As in past years NSF has set 90% as the minimally acceptable response rate on the principal questionnaires, and 80% on the teacher questionnaires.  It is important that projects make every effort to meet the required response rates in order to ensure sufficient data for analysis.  Remember to use the follow-up questionnaires when necessary, and let HRI know if you require additional copies of the questionnaires to send to non-respondents.  The following are additional suggestions for attaining high response rates.  While these suggestions may not work for every project, they are meant as ideas to help projects find strategies that will work in their own districts. 

• Begin Early
  Allow plenty of time to prepare and deliver the questionnaires to principals and teachers.

• Follow up with non-respondents
  Leave time to follow up with non-respondents.  Some projects found it effective to give principals and teachers only one week to respond to the initial questionnaire; follow-ups began immediately after the initial response deadline.

• Try personal contact
  Some projects found that principals and teachers were more likely to respond to a phone call or personal delivery of the questionnaire.  This may be more feasible for follow-up with non-respondents than for initial questionnaire administration.

• Involve people at the school level
  Involve teacher leaders in the distribution and collection of the questionnaires.  Ask principals or school administrative assistants to be responsible for collecting the questionnaires and following up with teachers that have not responded.

• Offer incentives
  If it’s within your project’s budget, you might consider offering teachers an extra incentive for completing their questionnaire.  In the past a project has offered respondents a $5 gift certificate for a local educational supply store; another offered coupons for free cappuccino!

Once you have completed the questionnaire data collection, please send all of the questionnaires in one shipment to HRI no later than July 1, 2004.   Don’t forget to complete the “Cover Sheet for Returning Completed Questionnaires” and include it in the shipment.  As in the past, you should get your questionnaire results back from us within a 30-day timeframe.

Teacher Interviews

Teacher Interview Summaries and Classroom Observation Protocols are now available to submit via the Web. To access these forms, select 'Online Forms' from the red menu at the top of the LSC website.  All Teacher Interview forms and Classroom Observation Protocols must be submitted as complete by October 15, 2004.  A recent standards-compliant web browser (e.g., IE.x, Netscape 7.x, Mozilla 1.x, or more recent versions) is recommended.

Please let us know if you have any questions about the completion or submission of these forms.

Reminder about Change to Classroom Observation Teacher Incentive Plan

Projects are reminded that this year they no longer have the option of obtaining redeemable vouchers from HRI for classroom observations completed for the core evaluation.  Instead, all projects may invoice HRI for $25 times n (where n equals the number of completed classroom observations required for the core observation this spring).  Projects will then be able to use these funds (and additional funds, if they wish) to provide whatever incentives make sense to them for individual teachers and/or schools.  Note that observations that may be conducted beyond those required for the core evaluation (e.g., supplemental observation) do not figure into the incentive allotment for the project, although projects may decide to provide incentives to those teachers as a matter of equity. 

All projects should submit their invoices to HRI no later than October 22, 2004.  Please note that the completed classroom observation protocols must be submitted online prior to billing HRI. 

A Summary of the January Lead Evaluator Meeting

The annual Lead Evaluator meeting was held on January 12−13 in Durham, North Carolina.  Aspects of core evaluation reporting, in particular those related to the extent of support for the LSC reforms and the likelihood of institutionalization, were reviewed and discussed.  The meeting also focused on professional development interrater reliability.  The case study opportunities described at the meeting are still in the approval process with NSF.  We will contact projects as soon as the process has been completed.  Any evaluators interested in copies of the meeting materials, including links to references (e.g., Inside the Classroom Study or Foundations monographs) should contact Kristen Malzahn at lsc@horizon-research.com.