Archives: Research Projects

Leadership Education for Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) Evaluation

The purpose of the LEND evaluation is to provide information to LEND staff about program implementation that enables them to continuously improve and shape the project, and to gauge the extent to which the program is on track to meet its goals.  The evaluation design is based on a participative, theory-based model that includes both formative and summative components. Qualitative and quantitative data are collected through interviews, observations, surveys, and existing data.

Publications:

Riser, D. & Giancola, S. (April, 2018). LEND Didactic Session Feedback Results April 6, 2018 (S18-026). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Riser, D. & Giancola, S. (March, 2018). LEND Didactic Session Feedback Results March 23, 2018 (S18-025). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Riser, D. & Giancola, S. (March, 2018). LEND Didactic Session Feedback Results March 9, 2018 (S18-020). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Riser, D. & Giancola, S. (March, 2018). LEND Didactic Session Feedback Results March 2, 2018 (S18-019). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Riser, D. & Giancola, S. (March, 2018). LEND Didactic Session Feedback Results February 23, 2018 (S18-012). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Riser, D. & Giancola, S. (February, 2018). LEND Didactic Session Feedback Results February 2, 2018 (S18-010). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Riser, D. & Giancola, S. (February, 2018). LEND Didactic Session Feedback Results January 26, 2018 (S18-009). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Coffey, D. (January, 2018). LEND Didactic Session Feedback Findings Fall 2017 (T18-002). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Coffey, D. (January, 2018). LEND Didactic Session Feedback Results January 5, 2018 (S18-005). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Giancola, S. & Riser, D. (November, 2017). LEND MCH Self-Assessment Report (T17-058). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Giancola, S. & Coffey, D. (September, 2017). LEND Year 1 Evaluation Results (T17-055). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Farmers’ Market Voucher Program Research (National, NYC, Florida) and Ladder for Growth: A National Network to Build Capacity and Test Innovative Strategies for Healthy Food Incentives

CRESP measured the impact of expanded nutrition program incentive vouchers at a network of farmers’ markets. More specifically, CRESP conducted a rigorous, multi-site, randomized control trial between September of 2015 and September of 2017 at 76 farmers’ markets across the country.

Between 2015 and 2017, University of Delaware’s Center for Research in Education and Social Policy (UD-CRESP) partnered with Wholesome Wave, Inc. (WW), Florida Certified Organic Growers and Consumers (referred to as Florida Organic Growers, or FOG), and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYCDOHMH) to measure the impact of expanded nutrition program incentives at the networks of farmers markets (FMs) supported by these three organizations, utilizing a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) research design.

Publications:

 

Ladder for Growth: A National Network to Build Capacity and Test Innovative Strategies for Healthy Food Initiatives

The randomized control trial (RCT) described herein was managed and evaluated by the University of Delaware’s Center for Research in Education and Social Policy (UD-CRESP), at 76 farmer’s markets (FMs) in 13 states and the District of Columbia, over a two-year time span. The RCT randomly awarded incentives to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients to use to purchase fruits and vegetables (FVs) at FMs.

 

Incentivizing Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in the Big Apple

This report presents data from the 21 New York City FMs within the GrowNYC FM network that participated in the RCT. These FMs partnered with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYCDOHMH) in a randomized incentive program, which provided variable amounts of Health Bucks to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants shopping at FMs between August 2016 and October 2017.

 

Fresh Access Bucks: Increasing Food Access and Florida Farmer Sales at Markets Statewide

This report presents and analyzes the data from the subset of 13 FMs in the Florida Organic Growers and Consumers (also known as Florida Organic Growers or FOG) FM network that participated in the RCT between January 2016 and April 2017.

 

Food in Our Neighborhood Study (FIONS)

FIONS is a randomized study designed to evaluate whether a new supermarket with healthy food retail funding opening in an urban food desert – Philadelphia, PA – favorably influences dietary intake of residents.

Delaware Early Childhood Assistive Technology Demonstration (DECATD) Evaluation

The evaluation of the DECATD program focuses on two early education sites and measures the extent to which the understanding and use of assistive technology changes upon implementation of program strategies.  The evaluation examines site-specific, pre-post measures of assistive technology awareness, knowledge, and skills.  In addition, the evaluation uses theory-based methods to study policy and practice changes relating to funding, access, and acquisition.

ADVANCE

ADVANCE is a five-year grant awarded in 2014 to the University of Delaware intended to increase the representation of women faculty in all STEM and social science departments. CRESP staff conducts the internal, formative evaluation of the ADVANCE program to assess whether project activities are occurring as planned and whether progress is being made in meeting program objectives. The ADVANCE evaluation uses a theory-based, participative model, employing repeated measures to examine change during the five-year implementation.

Publications:

Riser, D. & Giancola, S.  (April, 2018). ADVANCE: CRLT Players Workshop April 9, 2018 (S18-029). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Riser, D. & Giancola, S.  (March, 2018). ADVANCE: Faculty Mentoring Workshop College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment March 2018 (S18-022). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Riser, D. & Giancola, S.  (March, 2018). ADVANCE: Promotion and Tenure Panels March 5, 2018 (S18-021). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Riser, D. & Giancola, S.  (March, 2018). ADVANCE Technical Report: Women’s Leadership at UD Program Results (T18-007). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Giancola, S. & Riser, D. (December, 2017). ADVANCE Interim Evaluation Report: Recruitment Training Findings (T17-064). Newark, DE: Center for Research in Education and Social Policy.

Strategic Data Partnership on Teacher and Leader Effectiveness

Since 2015, CRESP has partnered with DDOE and the Harvard Strategic Data Project (SDP) to hire and place 2-3 SDP Data Fellows in full-time positions at DDOE. The Fellows are co-supervised by CRESP Director, Henry May, and DDOE Deputy Secretary, Karen Field Rogers. The SDP Fellows play a critical role in increasing the analytic capacity of DDOE and promoting connections to CRESP/UD. For more information, visit sdp.cepr.harvard.edu.

An Efficacy Follow-Up Study of the Long-Term Effects of Reading Recovery Under the i3 Scale-Up

The purpose of the Efficacy Follow-up Study of the Long-Term Effects of Reading Recovery is to test the sustained efficacy of Reading Recovery (RR), an intensive one-on-one reading instruction program for the lowest-achieving first grade students, on state test scores in third and fourth grade. Many first grade students struggle with reading and for some of these students, low literacy achievement in first grade can set them up for continued difficulty in literacy throughout elementary school and beyond. The Reading Recovery program is based on the idea that individualized, short-term, and highly-responsive instruction delivered by an expert teacher can disrupt this trajectory and allow the lowest achieving students to catch up to their peers. This study is a follow-up study to an i3-funded scale-up study of the Reading Recovery program.

Intervention:

Reading Recovery is a fully-developed program that uses intensive one-on-one reading instruction for the lowest-achieving first grade students in a school. These students receive 12- to 20-week cycles of daily, 30-minute, one-on-one lessons from specially trained Reading Recovery expert teachers. Lessons target phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Reading Recovery teachers receive specialized training that prepares them to tailor lessons to an individual student’s strengths and needs. Each lesson begins with re-reading familiar books, followed by word and letter work, story composition, assembling a cut-up sentence, and previewing and reading a new book. Reading Recovery also relies on continuous collection of data to gauge student progress.

Study Activities:

In this study, the researchers obtained state test scores for students who participated in the original i3 study as well as students from non-i3 schools to see if the impact of Reading Recovery is sustained through third and fourth grades. In addition to collecting students’ third and fourth grade reading or English language arts state test scores, we also administered an online survey through which RR Teacher Leaders or Teachers documented specific details of the experiences of individual Reading Recovery and comparison group students in terms of continued performance monitoring to detect a recurrence of reading problems and participation in supplemental reading programs and interventions. Data for over 9,000 students in more than 700 schools were collected for this study.

Results:

Three working papers (prior to peer-review) are being presented at the Annual Conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) on April 23, 2022. Copies of the presentation slides and working papers are available here.

If you have questions about this study, please send an email to the research team at cresp-rr@udel.edu

Publications:

May, H., Sarfo, A., & Englert, A., (in preparation, 2018). Short-Term Impacts of Reading Recovery in First Grade: A Regression Discontinuity Study from the 2011-12 Cohort of Non-i3 Schools.

Gray, Abigail; Goldsworthy, Heather; May, Henry; and Sirinides, Philip. (April, 2017). Evidence for Early Literacy Intervention: The Impacts of Reading Recovery. CPRE Policy Briefs. Philadelphia: Consortium for Policy Research in Education.

May, H., Sirinides, P., Gray, A., & Goldsworthy, H. (March, 2016). Reading Recovery: An Evaluation of the Four-Year i3 Scale-Up. Philadelphia: Consortium for Policy Research in Education.

May, H., Gray, A., Sirinides, P., Goldsworthy, H., Armijo, M., Sam, C., Gillespie, J., & Tognatta, N. (June, 2015). Year One Results from the Multi-Site Randomized Evaluation of the i3 Scale-Up of Reading Recovery. American Educational Research Journal 52(3), 547 – 581.

May, H., Goldsworthy, H., Armijo, M., Gray, A., Sirinides, P., Blalock, T., Anderson-Clark, H., Schiera, A., Blackman, H., Gillespie, J., & Sam, C. (December, 2014). Evaluation of the i3 Scale-Up of Reading Recovery: Year Two Report, 2012-13. Philadelphia: Consortium for Policy Research in Education.

May, H., Gray, A., Gillespie, J., Sirinides, P., Sam, C., Goldsworthy, H., Armijo, M., & Tognatta, N. (August, 2013). Evaluation of the i3 Scale-Up of Reading Recovery: Year One Report, 2011-12. Philadelphia: Consortium for Policy Research in Education.

The Center for Research Use in Education (CRUE) 

The CRUE/Research for Schools (R4S) project involves a large-scale nationally representative survey of over 10,000 staff from 300 schools to document how and when schools use research, and the conditions that promote or inhibit research use in schools.  To learn more about our study visit research4schools.org.