Project Activities
The researchers will fully develop the New Currents intervention using an iterative process in collaboration with an advisory board that includes PI community members and leaders familiar with PI cultures, PI parents, and educational leaders. Then, they will conduct a pilot study to evaluate the effect of the intervention on family-school partnership growth and student reading and attendance outcomes. Additionally, the research team will perform a cost analysis to show the costs of implementing the intervention.
Structured Abstract
Setting
The study will take place in elementary schools within and around Salem and Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington. Participating schools will have at least 6 percent PI student population.
Sample
The sample of this study will include approximately 160 PI parents with students in grades K-5 and 80 school staff from 8 elementary schools in 3 urban school districts.
The intervention includes 7 training sessions for parents, 10 sessions for school staff, and 3 sessions of bridging parents and school staff (bridge sessions). The parent sessions aim to (a) enhance parent knowledge about the U.S. school system and their self-efficacy when engaging with schools and school staff, (b) support students' academic skills development at home with a specific focus on language and literacy, and (c) teach parents about the costs of chronic absenteeism and how to lower it. The school staff sessions aim to (a) build a school-wide commitment to equity, (b) develop an assets-based approach with PI students and families, (c) enhance teachers' knowledge about culturally responsive practices, (d) increase school staff's awareness of PI cultures and of the barriers facing PI students, and (e) develop strategies and activities for connecting literacy instruction at school with follow-up parent supported activities in the home. The bridge sessions aim to increase collaborative support for PI elementary students, with a focus on literacy.
Research design and methods
The researchers will use a mixed method approach. During the development of the intervention, they will conduct interviews and focus groups with the PI parents, school staff, and community experts. They will take an iterative process to test, evaluate, and revise the intervention according to the stakeholder and participant feedback. After the intervention is developed the research team will conduct an underpowered randomized control trial pilot to examine the intervention effects on family-school partnership growth and student reading and attendance outcomes.
Control condition
The researchers will randomly assign four elementary schools to each of the intervention and control conditions. Control schools will operate with a business-as-usual approach to family-school engagement, meaning they will not receive the New Currents intervention during the study.
Key measures
The key measures will include parental challenges and adjustments, parenting practices (e.g., home-based literacy support, monitoring, encouragement, school-related self-efficacy), teacher practices (e.g., culturally responsive practices, equity leadership, and family relationship-building self-efficacy), and family-school partnership, and fidelity of implementation of the intervention. The researchers will also use student reading outcome measures such as state's standardized ELA assessment results, and DIBELS scores.
Data analytic strategy
During development phase, the researchers will analyze qualitative data from interviews and focus groups to develop themes and inform refinements. They will use an inductive grounded theory approach with codes emerging directly from parent, teacher, and community expert responses. Qualitative analyses will follow a multiple stage analytic process. The researchers will transcribe all focus groups and interviews and enter them for coding and analysis. They will analyze the pilot study survey data using a quasi-experimental design to compare intervention and control conditions with respect to academic achievement and family-school partnerships utilizing multi-level modeling. They will also collect and analyze data from post-intervention focus groups, participant and interventionist self-report, post-session and post program evaluation, and observation of video recorded sessions to understand user satisfaction and feasibility, as well as to refine the intervention.
Cost analysis strategy
The researchers will use the ingredients method to identify, measure, and value the resources needed to implement New Currents. To calculate costs of implementation, they will multiply the quantity of each ingredient by the percentage of use for program activities and their price. They will delineate costs based on who is responsible for each resource (e.g., district vs. school), separate start-up (e.g., training) costs, and maintenance costs.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Products and publications
The products of this study will consist of a fully developed New Currents intervention, including all materials and products necessary to implement the program (available electronically). Products also include journal articles, multilingual newsletters and reports for schools, churches, and other community-based organizations, conference presentations, and legislative briefings.
Publications:
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
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Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
