Early Evaluation Findings from the Instructional Conversation Study: Culturally Responsive Teaching Outcomes for Diverse Learners in Elementary School
Portes, Pedro R.; González Canché, Manuel; Boada, Diego; Whatley, Melissa E. (2018). American Educational Research Journal, v55 n3 p488-531. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1180090
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examining325Students, grades3-5
Department-funded evaluation
Review Details
Reviewed: February 2020
- Department-funded evaluation (findings for IES Funded Studies (NCER))
- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Meets WWC standards with reservations because it is a compromised randomized controlled trial, 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
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) - Math |
IES Funded Studies (NCER) vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
English learners, 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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51% English language learners -
Female: 51%
Male: 49% -
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South
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Race Other or unknown 100% -
Ethnicity Hispanic 95% Not Hispanic or Latino 5%
Study Details
Setting
The study was conducted in 22 schools within 14 school districts in one Southeastern state. (p. 14)
Study sample
The overall study included students in grades 3 and 5. About half (51 percent) of the students in the study were English learners. Fifty-one percent of students enrolled in the study were female. Most (95 percent) of the English learners were Hispanic. (pp. 12, 14)
Intervention Group
The intervention condition is Instructional Conversations, a practice for teachers to implement to facilitate conversations among students. In these conversations, the teacher guides discussions and models academic language and English use with a clear instructional goal in mind. These conversations occur for approximately 20 minutes, once or twice weekly, and include the teacher and between two and seven students. Teachers were asked to incorporate Instructional Conversations in all content areas and integrate vocabulary, phonemic awareness, and reading comprehension during science, math, and social studies instruction. Instructional Conversations is one of five standards from a pedagogical framework for making teaching and learning meaningful that was designed by the Center for Research on Excellence and Diversity in Education (CREDE). (p. 4, 15)
Comparison Group
Teachers in the comparison condition continued business-as-usual instructional practices. (p. 15)
Support for implementation
The intervention teachers underwent a 100-hour professional development program. Trained coaches worked with teachers for two years, including a practice year and the year of study implementation. The coaches provided support and feedback and monitored teachers' implementation of Instructional Conversations and their instructional practices every month during the practice year. (p. 15)
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.
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The group to which the intervention group is compared, which may include a different intervention, business as usual, or no services.
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Study findings for this report.
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