In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, States are struggling to reopen and keep open, most, if not all, of their 138,000 K-12 schools. This will have an impact on 55 million students, 6 million teachers and education staff, and all of the families of those involved. It is being done despite significant uncertainty as to the impact Covid-19 will have on the health of students and education staff. And ultimately, there is the question of how effective education will be in the context of different schedules, models, distractions, potential school closures, and remote learning.
Given this level of uncertainty, it is critical to track data that will help schools identify problems quickly, assess their nature, and respond in timely and effective ways to safeguard the health of students and education staff while providing a quality education. This Wing Institute dashboard will on track issues regarding the reopening of schools under the Covid-19 pandemic. It will provide relevant, up-to-date research and data on in the following areas:
I. Student health (recent research, data on exposure, infections, intensive care use, and deaths)
II. Staff health (recent research, data on exposure, infections, intensive ward, deaths
III. School health (recent research, models, school openings, school closings)
IV. Student performance (student absenteeism, academic performance, social behavioral issues)
Table of Contents
• Student Health: Total Number of Child Covid-19 Cases
• Student Health: Growth Rate in Covid-19 Total Cases Over Recent Weeks
• Student Health: Number and Growth Rate of Covid-19 Cases per 100,000 Children
• Student Health: Total Number of Children Hospitalized for Covid-19
• Student Health: Percent of Children Requiring Hospitalization
• Student Health: Total Number of Child Covid-19 Deaths
• Student Health: Percent of Child Covid-19 Cases Resulting in Death
Figure 1. Student Health: Total Number of Child Covid-19 Cases
As of November 12, 2020, there are over one million children who have been identified as having, or having had, the Covid-19 virus.
Figure 2. Student Health: Growth Rate in Covid-19 Total Cases Over Recent Weeks
The percent growth in the number of children with Covid-19 had accelerated every week since April 16, 2020, rising from a 2.2% weekly increase to a 11.9% weekly growth.
Figure 3. Student Health: Number of Covid-19 Cases per 100,000 Children
The number of Covid-19 cases per children is an even more important number because it is a metric of infection that is irrespective of the number of children tested. This data shows a growth rate of 20% over the last two weeks alone, and a doubling over the past ten weeks
Figure 4. Student Health: Total Number of Children Hospitalized for Covid-19
The total number of children who have been hospitalized due to Covid-19 continues to increase.
Figure 5. Student Health: Percent of Children Requiring Hospitalization
But the percent of children who require hospitalization due to Covid-19 remains very low and steady.
Figure 6. Student Health: Total Number of Child Covid-19 Deaths
The number of children who have died from the Covid-19 virus has been very small.
Figure 7. Student Health: Percent of Child Covid-19 Cases Resulting in Death
The percent of children who have died is extremely small, and has actually dropped steadily over the past four months.
November 19, 2020 9:29 amPublished by Jack StatesComments Off on Wing Institute Hiring Research Writers
The Wing Institute is recruiting contract-based content writers in the field of evidence-based education.
We are looking for professionals who can: 1. conduct literature reviews; 2. analyze the relevant data, research, and policies; and 3. write succinct overviews for publication on our web site.
Positions to be filled by January 1, 2020. Please send resume to Randy Keyworth at the Wing Institute: Rkeyworth@winginstitute.org
Research topics will focus on the eight education drivers associated with student achievement and success in school. These drivers encompass essential practices, procedures, resources, and management strategies. Specific topics include but are not limited to: skills for effective teaching, effective teacher training, quality of leadership, and external influences affecting student outcomes.
Those interested must be able to analyze both the quality and quantity of evidence studies to determine if current research meets a threshold of evidence for providing information to support the work of educators. Criteria for inclusion is based on:
1. Quality: A continua of evidence prioritizing well designed randomized trials and single subject designed studies. 2. Quantity: A continua of evidence spotlighting meta-analyses and replications of single subject designed studies.
Each overview consists of a summary of the research, graphics as needed, and citations, and supporting conclusions.
Compensation 1. $2,100 for each overview (2,500-5,000 words) 2. Authors name on the publication 3. Working with other professional is the field of evidence-based education
Expectations 1. Work with internal teams to obtain an in-depth understanding of evidence-based research. 2. Work remotely and supply your own equipment (computer) 3. Plan, develop, organize, write the above documents. 4. Analyze documents to maintain continuity of style of content and consistency with prior Wing Institute documents. 5. Recommend updates and revisions derived from updates in research.
Education Master’s degree in Education, Behavior Analysis, English, Psychology, Communication, or related degrees, is required.
Skills Ability to deliver high quality documentationAbility to communicate complex or technical information easilyExcellent written and verbal communication skills in EnglishAbility to write from the perspective of education policy makers, school administrators, teachers, and parents
November 17, 2020 9:33 amPublished by Jack StatesComments Off on What do teacher preparation programs and school principals need to get right to train new teachers during covid-19?
Sustaining Teacher Training in a Shifting Environment. Brief No. 7. This brief is a part of a series of briefs that address critical issues schools face because of the coronavirus. This paper provides K-12 education policymakers and school administrators with an evidence base about how best to provide teacher practicum experience and professional development during the coronavirus. Evidence supports student teaching placements are a critical training opportunity for new teachers. The covid-19 pandemic has constrained student teaching experiences. Acknowledging this fact, educators need to develop new ways of providing alternative clinical training during certification training and when these new teachers enter the workforce. This summary examines what we know about training, offers strategies to overcome the obstacles to be confronted by covid-19, and warns professional development planners to avoided specific practices unsupported by evidence.
Citation: Goldhaber, D., & Ronfeldt, M. (2020). Sustaining Teacher Training in a Shifting Environment. Brief No. 7. EdResearch for Recovery Project.
November 16, 2020 10:31 amPublished by Jack StatesComments Off on What is implementation fidelity and why is it important to student success?
Fidelity of implementation is a critical but often neglected component of any new system, practice, or intervention in educational research and practice. Fidelity is a multidimensional construct focused on providing evidence of adherence, quality, dosage, differentiation, and responsiveness following implementation. Unfortunately, fidelity has not always been prioritized, although evidence suggests that is changing, at least in published research. Further, although there are myriad methods for measuring fidelity, psychometric evaluations of fidelity tools have been limited, except in the SWPBIS literature. Calls for a science of fidelity have been made (Gresham, 2017) and are beginning to be answered. Overall, there appears to be more research focused exclusively on fidelity, including measurement approaches, psychometric evaluations, and relation to outcomes. As this research expands, we hope that the broad use and integration of fidelity in practice follows. We believe that the days of neglecting fidelity are behind us in education and see fidelity playing a central role in education moving forward. Through reliable and valid measurement of fidelity, scalable evidence-based practices can be developed and proliferated, positively impacting students’ academic and behavioral outcomes.
Citation: Gage, N., MacSuga-Gage, A., and Detrich, R. (2020). Fidelity of Implementation in Educational Research and Practice. Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/systems-program-fidelity
November 13, 2020 1:09 pmPublished by Jack StatesComments Off on What innovations are being researched for reducing the cost of coaching?
Toward Automated Feedback on Teacher Discourse to Enhance Teacher Learning. Research supports coaching as critical for effective teacher professional development. A key element of coaching is observing teachers in classrooms implementing newly trained skills. Unfortunately, one of the obstacles to providing coaching to teachers is the cost of delivering the service. Educators are on the lookout for any innovations that promise to reduce this cost of coaching while sustaining the impact of coaching. Research has found the use of video and remote viewing coaching to show much promise (Scheeler, Congdon, & Stansbery, 2010; Suhrheinrich, 2017). This study examines the use of an automated recording of high-quality audio using speech recognition and machine learning to develop teacher-generalizable computer-scored estimates of crucial features of teacher’s performance.
The study found that computerized models were moderately accurate compared to human coders and that speech recognition errors did not influence performance. The authors conclude that teacher discourse can be recorded and analyzed for timely feedback. The next step is to incorporate the automatic models into an interactive visualization tool that will provide teachers with objective feedback on student instruction quality.
Citation: Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional development.
November 13, 2020 9:54 amPublished by Jack StatesComments Off on What practices are the core practice elements of teacher professional development?
Effective teacher professional development. For the past 20 years, school systems have heavily relied on professional development as the primary means for improving student performance, as evidenced by the massive allocation of funds for in-service training. Few educators or policymakers challenge the importance of teacher training that ensures teachers have the knowledge and skills required to be effective in the classroom. Despite the overwhelming support for teacher professional development, research has shown that most teacher training is ineffective in changing how teachers teach and students perform. This paper analyzed 35 studies that found a link between professional development and positive teacher and student outcomes.
The authors identified the following features significant if professional development is to produce meaningful results;
They are content focused.
They incorporate active learning strategies.
They engage teachers in collaboration.
They use models and/or modeling.
They provide coaching and expert support.
They include time for feedback and reflection.
They are of sustained duration.
The authors conclude that professional development should incorporate the identified features and training needs to link to teachers’ experiences in preparation, induction, and teaching standards and evaluation.
Citation: Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional development.
November 12, 2020 11:09 amPublished by Jack StatesComments Off on How can schools best provide teacher inservice training?
Teacher Inservice Professional Development. he American education system values in-service training to improve teacher performance, spending an average of $18,000 annually per teacher. Like many promising practices, it has failed to produce as promised. Schools invest extensively in teacher induction in the early years of a teacher, supplemented with in-service training throughout the teacher’s career. Unfortunately, this training is often delivered in unproductive ways, for example, workshop sessions that commonly rely on passive didactic techniques, such as lecturing or reading, shown to have minimal or no impact on the teacher’s use of the practices in the classroom. This is especially true when the outcome, using the practices in the classroom, is assessed. Coaching-based clinical training, with the teacher practicing skills on students in a classroom setting and receiving feedback from the coach, has been found to produce the best results. Sustained professional development with scope and sequence curriculum, accompanied by manuals for interventions in which the teacher is being trained, is superior to single events. Computer-assisted instruction as a companion to systematic training techniques identified above has been found to be a cost-effective adjunct staff development tool.
Citation: Cleaver, S., Detrich, R., States, J. & Keyworth, R. (2020). Overview of Teacher Inservice. Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/in-service-professional-development
November 12, 2020 10:18 amPublished by Jack StatesComments Off on What is the cost of coaching teachers?
Assessing the Cost of Instructional Coaching. Each year school systems spend approximately $15 million per school year, $230 per student, and $3,390 per teacher, totaling 2.9% of the operating budget, to provide a variety of professional development opportunities from workshops to coaching to whole-school development (Cleaver, 2020). Research suggests coaching is one of the most effective methods for increasing the effectiveness of professional development.
Over the past twenty years, the popularity of school-based instructional coaching has grown. But one obstacle to the wide-spread use of coaching is the cost of delivering the service. This paper examines the resources needed for coaching and offers a framework for measuring these costs. The author finds coaching costs range from $3,260 to $5,220 per teacher. These are substantial expenses. Given limited education budgets, policymakers need to conduct cost/benefit analyses that compare traditional professional development methods such as workshops. This study lays the groundwork for cost-effectiveness studies by presenting a framework for measuring costs and reporting costs of a specific program.
Another valuable resource for determining a return on investment for education interventions is Stewart Yeh’s 2007 study, The cost-effectiveness of five policies for improving student achievement. Yeh offers a framework for utilizing a practice effect size and costs of the practice to determine what method is best suited given a school’s current budget. Incorporating cost-benefit analyses into schools’ decision-making process is essential if educators make the most informed decisions impacting student outcomes.
Citation: Knight, D. S. (2012). Assessing the cost of instructional coaching. Journal of Education Finance, 52-80.
Yeh, S. S. (2007). The cost-effectiveness of five policies for improving student achievement. American Journal of Evaluation, 28(4), 416-436.
November 10, 2020 11:39 amPublished by Jack StatesComments Off on What is the impact of pre-service coaching on teacher candidate’s skills?
Teacher coaching in a simulated environment. This paper looks at whether providing coaching between practice sessions in teacher education courses leads to the more rapid development of skills and changes in teachers’ beliefs about student behavior, using mixed-reality simulations as a practice space and standardized assessment platform. The authors randomly assigned 105 prospective teachers to different coaching conditions between simulation sessions integrated into a teacher preparation program.
The study attempts to answer two critical questions: (1) Does an increase in coaching supports (both dosage and type) lead to more significant improvements in candidates’ practice from one simulation to the next. (2). Will coaching supports also alter candidates’ perceptions of student behaviors and appropriate “next-steps” for addressing such behaviors, even though the coaching protocols do not directly target candidates’ beliefs and behavior plans for students. The study provides causal evidence about how to quickly improve essential teaching skills in the context of an education classroom management course, an important and understudied topic in general education teacher preparation literature. In addition to demonstrating that short coaching sessions can dramatically improve candidates’ redirection skills, the authors find significant coaching effects on candidates’ perceptions of student behavior and ideas about the next steps for addressing perceived behavioral issues.
In summary, coached candidates had substantial and considerable improvements in skills relative to those who only reflected on their teaching. This research indicates that repeated practice opportunities alone may not improve teaching skills as efficiently and effectively as coaching between sessions. Without outside support, self-reflection can have potentially harmful effects. Findings suggest that skills with which novices struggle can improve with coaching and do not have to be learned “on the job.”
Citation: Cohen, J., Wong, V., Krishnamachari, A., & Berlin, R. (2020). Teacher coaching in a simulated environment. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 42(2), 208-231.
November 10, 2020 9:54 amPublished by Jack StatesComments Off on How does professional development impact student mathematics and science outcomes?
Effects of Teacher Professional Development on Gains in Student Achievement: How Meta-Analysis Provides Scientific Evidence Useful to Education Leaders. This meta-analysis examines completed studies of effects of professional development for K-12 teachers of science and mathematics. The researchers wanted to answer the following questions: (1) What are the effects of content-focused professional development for math and science teachers on improving student achievement?; and (2) What characteristics of professional development programs (e.g., content focus, duration, coherence, active learning, and collective participation of teachers) explain the degree of effectiveness, and are the findings consistent with prior research on effective professional development?
This meta-analysis of professional development programs in mathematics and science found that 16 studies reported significant effect sizes for teacher development in relation to improving student achievement. These studies reported effect sizes for student achievement gains for a treatment group as compared to a control group and the studies provided adequate data and documentation for the research team to compute or re-analyze effect sizes. The analysis also confirms the positive relationship to student outcomes of key characteristics of design of professional development programs.
Citation: Blank, R. K., & De las Alas, N. (2009). The Effects of Teacher Professional Development on Gains in Student Achievement: How Meta Analysis Provides Scientific Evidence Useful to Education Leaders. Council of Chief State School Officers. One Massachusetts Avenue NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20001.
