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Studies About QTEL
Three Years and Rising: Austin and QTEL Collaboration
Evaluation of the QTEL Program in 52 California Middle Schools
Evaluation of QTEL Implementation in NYC
API Gains at Chula Vista Senior High School
Three Years and Rising: Austin and QTEL Collaboration
Four years ago, Austin's Lanier High School was in danger of having the Texas Education Agency declare the school academically "unacceptable." "We were teetering," reported former principal Edmund Oropez.
Rather than wring their hands, Oropez and his staff began the search for a professional development program that the whole school could commit to, one that would address the needs of a comprehensive high school where about 80 percent of students were economically disadvantaged and 35 percent were English language learners.
The program offered by QTEL (Quality Teaching for English Learners) appealed to the Lanier staff because all students, not only those learning English, benefit from the QTEL focus on high expectations, academic rigor, and the pedagogical supports that boost student engagement.
The school has extended its original three-year collaboration with QTEL based on solid increases in students’ academic achievement, with English language learners making the largest gains.
Based on the success of Lanier students, the Austin district has recently asked QTEL to work with the faculty at Reagan High School as well. Following the first year of collaboration between Reagan faculty and QTEL, scores at Reagan are up for all students — English language learners and the school as a whole.
 TAKS Pass Rates at Lanier and Reagan High Schools: 2007–2010.
While the initial Reagan scores are certainly heartening, sustained growth over time, as evident at Lanier, is the goal of QTEL professional development. Katherine Ryan, who was an assistant principal when QTEL first came to Lanier, is now the school's principal and a champion of the QTEL partnership. "The changes at Lanier," she says, "have been phenomenal. Some happened very quickly, such as teachers implementing tasks learned from QTEL into daily lessons. We also began to hear teachers talking about 'scaffolding' lessons almost immediately. And lessons more consistently engaged students in academic discussions with one another.
"Other changes have happened over a period of time," Ryan notes," and these offer the most promise. Teachers have become more purposeful in how they plan lessons, how they plan for scaffolding, and how they plan for rigor and quality interactions. Some of our teachers who have received additional training and support from QTEL staff are becoming coaches to help other teachers plan and implement quality lessons.
"My favorite piece of anecdotal evidence about the success of the QTEL collaboration comes from a team of visitors to one of our open houses. They were shocked at how engaged our students were with the content being presented. Students were working in small groups and the visitors wanted to know the 'secret' of getting students in groups to really talk about the material.
"There is no 'secret,' of course. It's been steady, hard work learning how to design lessons that actually engage students and that include the scaffolding that helps them all feel and actually be successful. Imagine the power we are able to give our English learners, for example, when they see the improvement they are making."
Evaluation of the QTEL Program in 52 California Middle Schools
Most English language learners are in classrooms where native English speakers are in the majority. Can QTEL, with its emphasis on scaffolding instruction for English language learners, boost academic achievement for all students, including those whose first language is English? An experimental research study in 52 California middle schools hopes to find the answer to this and other questions about the efficacy of QTEL approaches for increasing teacher expertise and student outcomes.
The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Education through its Regional Educational Laboratory Program (specifically, REL West), is being conducted by Berkeley Policy Associates, an independent research agency. Schools in three California counties with large populations of English language learners — San Diego, San Bernardino, and Riverside — are participating in a three-year QTEL intervention and the evaluation of its effectiveness.
The QTEL professional development being studied includes whole school institutes, collaborative learning communities for ESL and ELA teachers, and classroom coaching for a subset of teachers in each treatment school.
Research observations, surveys, test scores, and other data collected for the 26 program and 26 control schools address the following major questions:
- What is QTEL's impact on the pedagogical content knowledge and classroom practices of participating teachers?
- How does QTEL affect student-teacher interaction in the classroom and how do these impacts vary between English language learners and non-English language learners?
- What is QTEL's impact on student performance on state-referenced tests in a variety of subjects? How do these impacts vary between English language learners and non-English language learners?
- What is QTEL's impact on other student outcomes including attendance, grades, and grade promotion?
Analyses of data collected in the spring of 2008, 2009, and 2010 will yield a final report in December 2010.
Evaluation of QTEL Implementation in NYC
Since 2003, QTEL has been working in partnership with the New York City Department of Education to improve the academic achievement of the city's English learners in secondary schools.
As part of a three-year professional development program to apprentice the teachers of English language learners into QTEL practices — as well as the district professional developers who support those teachers — an external evaluation of the QTEL program implementation was conducted. Data collected from district teachers and professional developers indicated significant change in both groups' pedagogical content knowledge and their attitudes about student capacity for learning. Also, both groups rated highly the quality of the QTEL materials and professional development.
Pre/Post Changes in Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Teacher Self-rated Knowledge, Teacher Beliefs About Student Capacity1 (pilot test)
| |
Pretest |
Posttest |
Change |
p-value |
| Pedagogical Content Knowledge2 (Professional Developers) |
46.8%
(13.2) |
71.7%
(13.4%) |
24.9*
(14.2) |
<.001 |
| Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Teachers) |
48.6%
(14.9) |
66.6%
(17.2) |
18.0*
(13.4) |
<.001 |
| Self-Rated Knowledge3 (Total Scale Score) |
2.17
(0.42) |
2.35
(0.35) |
0.18*
(0.36) |
<.003 |
| Belief in Students' Capacity for Learning4 (Total Scale Score) |
2.88
(0.40) |
3.23
(0.51) |
0.34*
(0.53) |
<.001 |
Evaluation of Materials and Professional Development (pilot test)
| |
Professional Developers
%Strongly Agree |
Teachers
%Strongly Agree |
| Quality of Materials was good |
89.3 |
87.8 |
| Presentations were good |
87.5 |
70.7 |
| Readings were good |
83.0 |
78.1 |
| Exemplars (videos) were useful |
79.5 |
68.3 |
| Tasks assigned were very helpful |
90.2 |
87.8 |
| Will use learned material in classroom |
NA |
80.5 |
API Gains at Chula Vista Senior High School
Chula Vista Senior High School, in southern California near the Mexican border, was the site of a one-year program of intensive QTEL pilot testing (spring 2002 — spring 2003). At the time, the school, with a large population of immigrants in need of academic language development, was classified by the state as an under-performing school requiring immediate intervention. The QTEL professional development design involved working with all teachers to varying degrees — from two days with the entire faculty to more substantial work with content area departments, including intensive coaching with core teachers in those departments.
Evaluation of the QTEL implementation revealed a direct and consistent relationship between instructional change and intensity of the professional development support provided. These relationships were statistically significant across all indicators, with teachers receiving the most support implementing the greatest changes.
By the end of QTEL's year working with Chula Vista High, the school met its target growth on the California Department of Education's Academic Performance Index (API) for the first time in three years. The school moved from a base of 587 in 2002 (target growth: 11) to a score of 613 in 2003 (actual growth: 26), achieving 236% of its growth target and leaving behind its classification as an under-performing school.
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