Project Description: WestEd provides a range of evaluation services for SIATech, a network of 16 charter schools for high school dropouts, located on Job Corps sites in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, and New Mexico. Evaluators facilitated a multi-stakeholder group from SIATech to co-construct a logic model that depicts the theory of action of the school that serves “at-promise students,” and as guidance for goal setting and evaluation of accomplishment of goals.
The formative evaluation focuses on professional development and other support for the 16 sites; instructional strategies with the technology-based curricula, open entry, and short time that the students attend; alignment and use of assessments; strategies for building strong student-faculty relationships; and leadership training impact and strategies. Evaluation strategies include interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires of students, teachers, site leaders, central administration leaders, and governing board members, as well as site visits to a sample of schools.
WestEd evaluators engaged teams from 6 sites in a multi-session collaborative evaluation institute. As a result, the teams learned about and designed and implemented their own internal formative evaluation using aspects of their schools’ work; for example, state test preparation, strategies for building positive relationships between teachers and students, and ways to better connect Job Corps and SIATech student learning. These school teams have enhanced their capacity for schoolwide inquiry through this work.
SIATech will use ongoing evaluation findings to improve communication across the network and enhance the services they offer in a wide range of settings.
WestEd staff involved with this project:
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