The effect of professional development on elementary teachers’ understanding and implementation of reforms-based science instruction.
Maeng, J. L., Bell, R. L., Konold, T., & Whitworth, B. A. (2015). Fairfax, VA: VISTA. Retrieved from http://vista.gmu.edu/.
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examining2,733Students, grade5
Department-funded evaluation
Review Details
Reviewed: January 2017
- Department-funded evaluation (findings for Virginia Initiative for Science Teaching and Achievement (VISTA))
- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Meets WWC standards with reservations because it is a randomized controlled trial with high attrition, but the analytic intervention and comparison groups satisfy the baseline equivalence requirement.
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
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Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Science scaled test |
Virginia Initiative for Science Teaching and Achievement (VISTA) vs. Business as usual |
1 Year |
Grade: 5;
|
N/A |
N/A |
No |
-- |
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
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Virginia
Study Details
Setting
Teachers in the intervention group came from 72 Virginia elementary schools, and teachers in the comparison group came from 60 different Virginia elementary schools. Students in the intervention group came from 38 teacher teams, and students in the comparison group came from 22 teacher teams.
Study sample
Student level sample characteristics were not provided. The proportion of female vs. male teachers is relatively equivalent between conditions, and the groups are relatively equivalent in the proportions of teachers who are Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American in both conditions. Among the larger teacher sample of 199 teachers in the intervention group and 143 teachers in the comparison group, about 87% were female and 13% were male. About 78% were Caucasian teachers, and 19% were African-American teachers.
Intervention Group
The Virginia Initiative for Science Teaching and Achievement (VISTA) is a professional development program for teachers that includes a four-week professional development program during the summer, and follow-up professional development during the school year. Professional development is structured in school teams, and focused on problem-based learning (PBL), Inquiry strategies, and the nature of science (NOS), aligned with the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL). The intervention time period was one year at the time of analysis.
Comparison Group
The comparison condition was business as usual in non-VISTA schools.
Support for implementation
The VISTA professional development program has several supports for implementation of problem-based learning, explicit science instruction, and inquiry instruction: 1) intense 4-week summer institute with 14 hours of follow-up sessions and attendance at statewide science conference; 2) coaches work with teachers during the summer institute and for 22.5 hours during the academic year; 3) researchers also provide content support and instruction; and 4) the school team structure provides support for implementation of strategies in their classrooms.
Additional Sources
In the case of multiple manuscripts that report on one study, the WWC selects one manuscript as the primary citation and lists other manuscripts that describe the study as additional sources.
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Konold, T., Maeng, J. L., & Bell, R. L. (2015). Combined Years 2 (2012-13) and 3 (2013-14) elementary VISTA student level impact analysis: Grade 5 science SOL achievements with grade 3 science SOL covariates - Students nested within schools (Teacher Teams). Fairfax, VA: VISTA. Retrieved from https://vista.gmu.edu/
An indicator of the effect of the intervention, the improvement index can be interpreted as the expected change in percentile rank for an average comparison group student if that student had received the intervention.
For more, please see the WWC Glossary entry for improvement index.
An outcome is the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are attained as a result of an activity. An outcome measures is an instrument, device, or method that provides data on the outcome.
A finding that is included in the effectiveness rating. Excluded findings may include subgroups and subscales.
The sample on which the analysis was conducted.
The group to which the intervention group is compared, which may include a different intervention, business as usual, or no services.
The timing of the post-intervention outcome measure.
The number of students included in the analysis.
The mean score of students in the intervention group.
The mean score of students in the comparison group.
The WWC considers a finding to be statistically significant if the likelihood that the finding is due to chance alone, rather than a real difference, is less than five percent.
The WWC reviews studies for WWC products, Department of Education grant competitions, and IES performance measures.
The name and version of the document used to guide the review of the study.
The version of the WWC design standards used to guide the review of the study.
The result of the WWC assessment of the study. The rating is based on the strength of evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention. Studies are given a rating of Meets WWC Design Standards without Reservations, Meets WWC Design Standards with Reservations, or >Does Not Meet WWC Design Standards.
A related publication that was reviewed alongside the main study of interest.
Study findings for this report.
Based on the direction, magnitude, and statistical significance of the findings within a domain, the WWC characterizes the findings from a study as one of the following: statistically significant positive effects, substantively important positive effects, indeterminate effects, substantively important negative effects, and statistically significant negative effects. For more, please see the WWC Handbook.
The WWC may review studies for multiple purposes, including different reports and re-reviews using updated standards. Each WWC review of this study is listed in the dropdown. Details on any review may be accessed by making a selection from the drop down list.
Tier 1 Strong indicates strong evidence of effectiveness,
Tier 2 Moderate indicates moderate evidence of effectiveness, and
Tier 3 Promising indicates promising evidence of effectiveness,
as defined in the
non-regulatory guidance for ESSA
and the regulations for ED discretionary grants (EDGAR Part 77).