Browsing by Author "Edwards, Katherine"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Connecting the Dots from Professional Development to Student Learning
    (American Society for Cell Biology, 2021-12-01) Ellingson, Charlene L; Edwards, Katherine; Roehrig, Gillian H; Hoelscher, M. Clark; Haroldson, Rachelle A; Dubinsky, Janet M
    Following professional development (PD), implementation of contemporary topics into high school biology requires teachers to make critical decisions regarding integration of novel content into existing course scope and sequence. Often exciting topics, such as neuroscience, do not perfectly align with standards. Despite commitment to enacting what was learned in the PD, teachers must adapt novel content to their perceptions of good teaching, local context, prior knowledge of their students, and state and district expectations. How teachers decide to integrate curricula encountered from PD programs may affect student outcomes. This mixed-methods study examined the relationship between curricular application strategies following an inquiry-based neuroscience PD and student learning. Post-PD curricular implementation was measured qualitatively through analysis of teacher action plans and classroom observations and quantitatively using hierarchical linear modeling to determine the impact of implementation on student performance. Participation in neuroscience PD predicted improved student learning compared with control teachers. Of the two distinct curricular implementation strategies, enacting a full unit produced significantly greater student learning than integrating neuroscience activities into existing biology units. Insights from this analysis should inform teacher implementation of new curricula after PD on other contemporary biology topics.
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    Evaluating Statewide School Accountability Systems: Comparison of Growth Models
    (2016-02) Edwards, Katherine
    Under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) waivers, and now under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states have the opportunity to incorporate elements other than proficiency into their accountability systems. With this flexibility, many states have turned to, or are exploring, the use of growth in their accountability system. Using three years of data from the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs), five growth models which have been used in state accountability systems were explored: transition matrix, trajectory, projection, student growth percentiles, and hierarchical linear models. The relationship between the rank order and school demographics, school size, and school type in each of these models was explored in order to determine which model appeared the least biased. Both the transition matrix and hierarchical linear model appeared to be relatively unbiased, as implemented in this study, but the hierarchical linear model produced results more similar to the other three models explored.
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    Examining the Impact of Later High School Start Times on the Health and Academic Performance of High School Students: A Multi-Site Study
    (2014-02) Wahlstrom, Kyla; Dretzke, Beverly; Gordon, Molly; Peterson, Kristin; Edwards, Katherine; Gdula, Julie
    The results from this three-year research study, conducted with over 9,000 students in eight public high schools in three states, reveal that high schools that start at 8:30 AM or later allow for more than 60% of students to obtain at least eight hours of sleep per school night. Teens getting less than eight hours of sleep reported significantly higher depression symptoms, greater use of caffeine, and are at greater risk for making poor choices for substance use. Academic performance outcomes, including grades earned in core subject areas of math, English, science and social studies, plus performance on state and national achievement tests, attendance rates and reduced tardiness show significantly positive improvement with the later start times of 8:35 AM or later. Finally, the number of car crashes for teen drivers from 16 to 18 years of age was significantly reduced by 70% when a school shifted start times from 7:35 AM to 8:55 AM.