Sponsored Projects
The SERVE Center works with federal, state, and district agencies and with other education organizations to provide services in the areas of research and development, evaluation, professional development, and technical assistance. Following is a listing of some of our recent sponsored projects:
Project: Alabama DOE High School Evaluation
The purpose of this process evaluation is to describe how schools who have received improvement grant monies are using the additional funding to make changes in school leadership and instruction and to build relationships with students and parents. In addition, the evaluation has an outcome component in which the evaluation team will explore the extent to which student achievement is increasing in these schools.
Client: Alabama State Department of Education
Funding: Alabama State Department of Education
Topic: High School, School Finance, Leadership, Instruction, Climate, Student Achievement
Project: Alabama DOE Middle School Evaluation
The purpose of this outcome evaluation is to explore the extent to which student achievement is increasing in schools that receive additional school improvement money under Title I. In addition, the evaluation has a small process evaluation component in which the evaluation team will determine the criteria the Alabama State Department of Education used to determine LEA and school eligibility for funding.
Client: Alabama State Department of Education
Funding: Alabama State Department of Education
Topic: Middle School, School Finance, Leadership, Instruction, Climate, Student Achievement
Project: AMSTI-UNA ACHE Evaluation
As part of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI), the University of North Alabama was awarded funds to provide professional learning teams (PLTs) training to AMSTI sites. The purpose of this implementation evaluation is to explore who is participating in the PLTs training, to what extent those participating have been able to develop sustainable PLTs in their schools, how PLTs are impacting student achievement in these schools, and to what extent PLT activities are aligned with the Alabama State Board of Education Standards of Effective Professional Development and the Alabama State Board of Education Technology Professional Development Standards.
Client: University of North Alabama
Funding: University of North Alabama
Topic: Professional Learning Teams, AMSTI, Student Achievement
Project: Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center at Edvantia
The ARCC provides evidence-based technical assistance to help state education agencies increase their capacity to implement NCLB.
Client: North Carolina
Funding Agency: US Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
Topic: Closing the Achievement Gap
Project: Crystal Island: Developing Science Problem-Solving Skills and Engagement Through Intelligent Game-Based Learning Environments
The objective of this project is to design, build, and empirically evaluate an intelligent game-based learning environment for fifth grade science education. To promote effective science learning, the project will create intelligent game-based learning environment technologies that leverage the rich interactive 3D game environments provided by commercial game engines and the artificial intelligence capabilities of intelligent tutoring systems. The project investigates the impact of intelligent game-based learning environments on problem solving, engagement, and STEM learning.
Client: NC State University (William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation)
Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
Topic: Engagement, STEM Learning, Science, Problem Solving, Game-Based Learning
Project: Efficacy of North Carolina’s Learn and Earn Early College High School Model
A partnership effort with the North Carolina New Schools Project, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Duke University, Abt Associates, and RTI International, this longitudinal experimental study is examining the impact of North Carolina’s Learn and Earn Early College High School Model. Participating schools use a lottery to select students; the study then follows students who were randomly selected to both attend and not attend the school. The study compares both sets of students on a broad range of outcomes including achievement, coursetaking, attendance, dropout, and student attitudes and behaviors. In addition, the study is collecting information on model implementation to identify any particular components of the model that are associated with better student outcomes.
Client: Institute of Educations Sciences (IES)
Funding Agency: US Department of Education
Topic: Early College High Schools
Project: Evaluation of Horry County Historical Inquiry Project
This is a mixed method evaluation of Horry County’s Historical Inquiry Project, a project funded by the Teaching American History program. Using survey data, content knowledge assessments, and student achievement data, the evaluation will look at the impact of the project on teachers’ content knowledge and historical thinking skills, as well as on student outcomes.
Client: Horry County Schools
Funding Agency: US Department of Education
Topic: Professional Development, Student Achievement, Teacher Content Knowledge
Project: Exploring Why Students Leave Early College High Schools
This project uses school enrollment data, survey data, and site visits to explore the number of students leaving Early College High Schools and to identify reasons they might leave. The project will look at Early College High Schools across the country with the goal of providing information that will help the schools serve their students more effectively.
Client: Jobs for the Future
Funding Agency: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Topic: Professional Development, Early College High Schools
Project: Georgia Charter Schools Program Evaluation
SERVE will collect and analyze survey and interview data from Georgia charter school operators on the performance of the Georgia Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program. Data will be collected in fall 2010. Data will be analyzed in fall 2010 and spring 2011. The final report will be submitted prior to June 20, 2011.
Client: Georgia Department of Education
Funding: Georgia Department of Education
Topic: Charter Schools, State Department of Education
Project: GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) North Carolina Evaluation
GEAR UP is a national initiative with the mission to significantly increase the number of students prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education. Funded by the US Department of Education, GEAR UP NC is working with students and their families in 20 of 100 NC counties. GEAR UP NC offers activities across North Carolina to students in grades 7-12 and to their families, educators, counselors, and community leaders to prepare students to enter and succeed in college. As part of this evaluation, SERVE will conduct focus groups in 20 GEAR UP NC school districts with administrators, principals, coordinators, teachers, counselors, students, and parents to gauge the effectiveness of the GEAR UP program.
Client: UNC Administration
Funding: GEAR UP North Carolina
Topic: College Preparation, High School Dropout
Project: Guilford County Schools Mission Possible Evaluation
The purpose of this 5-year evaluation is to determine the extent to which: (1) the most highly qualified teachers and administrators are being recruited and retained; (2) the Mission Possible training and incentives impact teacher and student outcomes at Guilford County’s Mission Possible Schools; (3) the Mission Possible teachers and administrators are trained as proposed. Propensity score matching will be used to identify comparison schools within North Carolina. Other data to be collected by SERVE will include a climate survey and publicly available state data.
Client: Guilford County Schools, NC
Funding: Guilford County Schools Teaching Incentive Grant
Topic: Teacher Incentive Pay, Teacher Recruitment and Retention, Math, English
Project: High School Mathematics and Science Pipeline Study
As co-investigators with the Urban Institute in Washington, DC, SERVE is looking at the impact of varying reform models on students’ enrollment and success in college preparatory mathematics and science courses. The study design includes a comparative interrupted time series analysis and a multilevel survival analysis of student coursetaking in different high school reform models. These analyses are supported by surveys and site visits designed to understand school-level policies and practices that support success in these courses.
Client: National Science Foundation
Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
Topic: Mathematics, Science, Coursetaking, College Prep
Project: Integration of Shared Presentation Virtual Space in STEM Courses—East Carolina University
Professors at East Carolina University are testing the gains in achievement for course content, as well as course satisfaction and engagement, that occur as a result of the addition of an online supplemental virtual reality lecture component to traditional college-level classes. SERVE will conduct the evaluation of this project through pre- and post-tests and surveys with both intervention and control classes and through an examination of implementation data.
Client: East Carolina University
Funding: National Science Foundation
Topic: Instructional Technology Evaluation
Project: National Center for Homeless Education MATO (NCHE)
NCHE is the U.S. Department of Education’s technical assistance and information dissemination center in the area of homeless education. NCHE supports the work of administrators, educators, service providers, and agencies in removing barriers to the enrollment and success of homeless children and youth and in the implementation of the McKinney-Vento Act (Title X, Part C of the No Child Left Behind Act).
Client: U.S. Department of Education
Funding Agency: U.S. Department of Education
Topic: Homeless Education
Project: New Schools Project—Redesign 2.0 Initiative
The Redesign 2.0 Initiative is a collaborative partnership among SAS, the North Carolina New Schools Project (NCNSP), the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, and school districts to create highly effective schools that can demonstrate effective teaching practices through the use of technology. These schools, with the active support of their districts, will demonstrate effective instruction and student support with the overarching goal of graduating 100% of students prepared for work and for the option of college.
Client: SAS, the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation
Funding: The North Carolina New Schools Project, SAS, Inc., the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation
Topic: Effective teaching practices through the use of technology
Project: North Carolina Homeless Education Program
The NC HEP administers the homeless education program for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The program provides guidance, technical assistance, staff development, and oversight to all local education agencies in the state in removing barriers to the enrollment and success of homeless children and youth and in implementing the provisions of the McKinney-Vento Act (Title X, Part C of the No Child Left Behind Act). The program conducts and oversees the process of providing subgrants to local education agencies in accordance with the McKinney-Vento Act.
Client: North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Funding Agency: North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Topic: Homeless Education
Project: North Carolina Supplemental Educational Services (SES) Evaluation
SES falls under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The program provides free-of-cost academic assistance for eligible students (e.g., tutoring), over and above regular school hours. This evaluation will examine the performance of SES providers on the basis of three criteria: (1) student attendance in the program, (2) parental satisfaction, and (3) academic achievement of participating students. These three evaluation criteria were identified in the NCDPI SES evaluation policy as the outcomes on which to determine the effectiveness of SES program providers.
Client: North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Funding: North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Program Monitoring
Topic: Supplemental, Parent Satisfaction, Attendance, Achievement, After-School
Project: PLT Cumberland County
The SERVE Center provides training and long-term support to magnet schools as they implement and sustain professional learning teams. These collaborative teams of teachers build the capacity to develop and design effective instruction and practices that promote diversity, strengthen student’s knowledge in academic subjects, and continue operating the magnet schools at a high performance level after federal funding for the magnet schools is terminated.
Client: Cumberland County Schools’ Magnet School Assistance Program
Funding Agency: Cumberland County Schools’ Magnet School Assistance Program
Topic: Professional Learning Communities
Project: Project ENRICH (Educational Network for Renewal, Innovation, Collaboration, and Help) at UNCG
The School of Education and the Evaluation Center at UNCG are teaming up with Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools (WSFCS) to enhance the teacher preparation programs. Over the 5-year grant, approximately 475 teachers (100 residents in math, science, special education and English Language Learners and 375 undergraduates) will be trained and placed in WSFCS. SERVE will conduct the external evaluation.
Client: UNCG
Funding: Federal Teacher Quality Partnership Grants
Topic: Teacher Preparation, Math, Science, Special Education, English Language Learners
Project: Scale-Up: Scaling up STEM Learning with the VCL
This Scale Up project uses advanced cyber infrastructure in combination with sustained, relevant professional development to support teachers' use of advanced software tools in algebra and geometry. All of these components have been demonstrated as promising approaches to addressing STEM workforce shortfalls among under-represented populations. Together, they form a powerful strategy for effectively scaling up regionally and nationally. This project will focus on a set of rural school systems in North Carolina as a test bed for conducting a rigorous evaluation of scale-up. Opportunities for students to engage in problem-solving and inquiry approaches to learning mathematics in technology-rich environments to address knowledge, skills, and dispositions are crucial for STEM workforce readiness.
Client: NSCU, The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation
Funding: National Science Foundation
Topic: Teacher Professional Development, STEM Learning
Project: School Board of Lake County
The School Board of Lake County has received grants from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education to redesign its large comprehensive high schools into Smaller Learning Communities (SLCs). SERVE Center staff members will assist funded high schools in developing a deeper understanding of SLCs and shifting resources and school culture to better serve students.
Client: School Board of Lake County
Funding Agency: School Board of Lake County
Topic: Smaller Learning Communities, High School Redesign
Project: School Board of Palm Beach County
The School Board of Palm Beach County has received grants from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education to redesign its large comprehensive high schools into Smaller Learning Communities (SLCs). SERVE Center staff members will assist funded high schools in developing a deeper understanding of SLCs and shifting resources and school culture to better serve students.
Client: School Board of Palm Beach County
Funding Agency: School Board of Palm Beach County
Topic: Smaller Learning Communities, High School Redesign
Project: South Carolina’s Bridges to Early Learning
The South Carolina Department of Education received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to provide training and professional development to early childhood educators. This project, Bridges to Early Learning, will provide professional development and support to teachers in public 4K programs, Head Start, and child care centers. South Carolina has partnered with the SERVE Center at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to evaluate the project.
Client: South Carolina Department of Education
Funding Agency: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
Topic: Early Childhood, Professional Development
Project: South Carolina Department of Education School Improvement Fund Evaluation
The purpose of the external evaluation is to answer implementation and outcome questions of interest to the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE). The overarching question guiding the evaluation is the extent to which the additional funding was used by 17 sub-grantee schools to support “high quality, sustainable school improvement activities that increase the likelihood that students learn challenging academic content and achieve proficiency.” Eight sub-questions are also included as a means of organizing the evaluation report and data collection. The external evaluation will summarize four sources of information: (1) the content of 17 sub-grantee applications; (2) interviews with 2-5 teachers, a principal, and a district contact involved in the funded program/strategy in up to four sub-grantee sites; (3) interviews with relevant SCDE staff; and (4) relevant achievement data as provided by the four sites interviewed and/or the SCDE.
Client: South Carolina Department of Education
Funding: South Carolina Department of Education via grant for U.S. Department of Education
Topic: Sustainability, School Improvement
Project: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Evaluation (TESOL for ALL)
The purpose of this evaluation is to examine the effectiveness of the TESOL for ALL professional development program. Impact of the professional development sessions on teachers' self-perception of their knowledge and skills, application in their daily teaching, and long-term impact on English language learners' academic growth will be examined.
Client: UNCG School of Education—Educational Research Methodology
Funding: U.S. Department of Education
Topic: English Language Learners
Project: TechMath: Real World Math, Technology and Business Connections
TechMath is a three-year program linking businesses, teachers, students, and higher education to enhance rural, underserved student career potential in northeastern North Carolina. TechMath addresses the current educational gap between real-world business and education by arranging partnerships between local businesses and mathematics and science teachers. The tangible products of these partnerships are instructional modules incorporating local, real-world business problems into mathematics instruction. The local partnerships and the resulting instruction will empower the high percentage of underserved, underrepresented students of rural North Carolina to pursue a wider range of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career options.
Client: East Carolina University
Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
Topic: STEM Learning, Student Engagement
Project: Transition to Teaching
Guilford County Schools (GCS) was awarded federal money to enhance the services that they currently provide in their Lateral Entry Resource and Advising Center. Some specific activities are: providing an 18-month GCS Alternative Certification Track (ACT) in-house licensure program for a total of 50 teachers per year, providing laptops to participants in the GCS ACT program, providing professional development resources to all lateral entry teachers in the district, providing support services to all program graduates, and hosting an annual Lateral Entry Teacher Leadership Retreat with the Center for Creative Leadership beginning in 2010 for all lateral entry teachers. These activities will result in reduced teacher shortages. SERVE will be conducting the 5-year external evaluation of this program.
Client: Guilford County Schools
Funding: Guilford County Schools
Topic: Lateral Entry, Alternative Licensure
Project: University of North Carolina - General Administration Leadership for Turnaround School Training Evaluation
The purpose of this process evaluation is to examine participants’ reactions to the professional development training, understand the extent to which participants acquired the intended knowledge and skills, identify what organizational support is in place or currently being developed to support the use of knowledge gained, describe how participants are applying the new knowledge and skills gained from the professional development training, and assess the extent to which student achievement in the participating schools is improving. Each of these questions will be explored for Elementary, Middle, and High Schools participating in the professional development training.
Client: Center for School Leadership Development
Funding Agency: University of North Carolina – General Administration
Topic: Elementary School, Middle School, High School, Leadership, Professional Development, Student Achievement
Project: Winston-Salem Forsyth County (WSFC) Schools Dropout Prevention Program Evaluation
The purpose of this external review of the WSFC Dropout Prevention Programs will be to provide feedback on the various programs and provide recommendations for an overall evaluation plan. Evaluation activities will include: (1) reviewing extant reports and data, (2) interviewing project leaders/coordinators for the purpose of understanding the implementation of such programs only, and (3) providing a comprehensive summary evaluation report (with recommendations) of the current status of the dropout prevention initiatives in Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools.
Client: Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools
Funding: Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools and Foundation Partners
Topic: Dropout Prevention, Graduation Rate, Retention, Big Brothers/Big Sisters
Project: Winston-Salem Forsyth County (WSFC) Schools Rigorous Magnet Evaluation
The purpose of this rigorous evaluation is to measure the effect that magnet schools have on students and subgroups of students and to identify mediating factors. The external evaluation is intended to provide staff at WSFCS with useful information for formative project improvement as well as overall program outcomes. The evaluation design will be a multi-site analysis based on (1) surveys with students and staff, (2) quantitative analysis of achievement data, and (3) focus groups with each magnet school.
Client: Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools, Magnet School Program
Funding: U.S. Department of Education
Topic: Magnet School, Rigorous, School Choice