As part of the Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials (AIIM), Arkansas educators receive high-quality professional learning (HQPL) to help ensure all students in the state have access to high-quality instructional materials (HQIM), grade-level instruction, and responsive practices leading to opportunities to reach college, career, and life goals. Through a series of virtual coaching sessions, REL Southwest supported Arkansas Department of Education staff to develop a survey to track how well districts are integrating HQIM and to develop a plan for administering the survey annually to conduct a formative evaluation of AIIM. Coaching topics included best practices in formative evaluation, how to design a survey to collect data on the implementation of HQPL and HQIM, and how to use data for program improvement.
Training Materials: Session 1 - Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials (AIIM) Logic Model and Research Questions
REL Southwest supports the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) in both examining and improving programming to increase college and career readiness for Arkansas students. The objective of this project was to build ADE’s capacity to evaluate the Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials (AIIM) initiative by acquiring accurate information on the implementation of high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) and high-quality professional learning (HQPL). Through a series of five virtual coaching sessions, REL Southwest supported ADE staff to develop a survey to understand how districts are integrating HQIM and to develop a plan for administering the survey annually to conduct a formative evaluation of AIIM.
For session 1, held in February 2024, participants learned how to develop a logic model to create a visual representation of the AIIM initiative. Facilitators provided an overview of logic models, and participants then drafted an AIIM logic model and evaluation research questions.
Training Materials: Session 2 - Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials (AIIM) Logic Model and Research Questions
REL Southwest supports the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) in both examining and improving programming to increase college and career readiness for Arkansas students. The objective of this project was to build ADE’s capacity to evaluate the Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials (AIIM) initiative by acquiring accurate information on the implementation of high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) and high-quality professional learning (HQPL). Through a series of five virtual coaching sessions, REL Southwest supported ADE staff to develop a survey to understand how districts are integrating HQIM and to develop a plan for administering the survey annually to conduct a formative evaluation of AIIM.
For session 2, held in March 2024, participants used the logic model created in session 1 to finalize research questions. Session facilitators provided an overview of the survey development process, and participants began developing the AIIM implementation survey.
Training Materials: Session 3 - Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials: Drafting Survey and Plan for Pretesting
REL Southwest supports the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) in both examining and improving programming to increase college and career readiness for Arkansas students. The objective of this project was to build ADE’s capacity to evaluate the Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials (AIIM) initiative by acquiring accurate information on the implementation of high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) and high-quality professional learning (HQPL) materials. Through a series of five virtual coaching sessions, REL Southwest supported ADE staff to develop a survey to understand how districts are integrating HQIM and to develop a plan for administering the survey annually to conduct a formative evaluation of AIIM.
Session 3, held in April 2024, focused on creating and administering an implementation survey in alignment with research questions developed in session 2. In the session, participants generated a draft of the AIIM implementation survey and developed a plan for pretesting the survey.
Training Materials: Session 4 - Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials: Survey Administration and Evaluation Plan Development
REL Southwest supports the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) in both examining and improving programming to increase college and career readiness for Arkansas students. The objective of this project was to build ADE’s capacity to evaluate the Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials (AIIM) initiative by acquiring accurate information on the implementation of high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) and high-quality professional learning (HQPL) materials. Through a series of five virtual coaching sessions, REL Southwest supported ADE staff to develop a survey to understand how districts are integrating HQIM and to develop a plan for administering the survey annually to conduct a formative evaluation of AIIM.
In session 4, held in June 2024, participants reviewed the survey administration and communication plan developed in session 3 and generated a draft of an evaluation plan based on the logic model and research questions.
Training Materials: Session 5 - Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials: Review and finalize the evaluation plan
REL Southwest supports the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) in both examining and improving programming to increase college and career readiness for Arkansas students. The objective of this project was to build ADE’s capacity to evaluate the Arkansas Initiative for Instructional Materials (AIIM) initiative by acquiring accurate information on the implementation of high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) and high-quality professional learning (HQPL) materials. Through a series of five virtual coaching sessions, REL Southwest supported ADE staff to develop a survey to understand how districts are integrating HQIM and to develop a plan for administering the survey annually to conduct a formative evaluation of AIIM.
The final session in the AIIM virtual coaching session series, held in July 2024, focused on reviewing and finalizing the evaluation plan developed in session 4, as well as reviewing and finalizing the next steps for survey administration.