About the Evaluation

The evaluation of the Systemic Initiative is comprised of three separate but overlapping phases:

1. Planning and instrument development
2. Data collection
3. Analysis and reporting

We have completed the planning and instrument development phase and are starting phase 2 (data collection). We are also in the process of developing our plans for site visits, which will start in late March. In total, the staff from LSU's Cain Center will visit 35 schools across the 9 parishes in the first year of the project. During site visits, they will observe a few classrooms and conduct interviews with a few teachers and administrators.

In early March we also began administering surveys to teachers and administrators in the participating parishes. The surveys are Web-based - so teachers and administrators will receive invitations to complete the survey via their e-mail account. The e-mail message will contain a link to the Web survey . It's important that we obtain high response rates, so we will also send follow-up surveys via regular mail to teachers and administrators who do not complete the Web-based survey. Another key component of our evaluation is to track and analyze student achievement data (LEAP21, ITBS, and GEE21). Much of this analysis will be conducted in summer 2006.

The last phase of the evaluation deals with analysis and reporting of findings. During this period, we will compile all of our findings from the teacher and administrator surveys, classroom observations, and interviews with school and district personnel.

In late April or early May 2006, we will provide an evaluation feedback session for each parish. At these feedback sessions, findings from our analysis of survey data will be shared and discussed with representatives from each district. Our hope is that the results will provide useful information to district planning teams as they develop their reports of the year's activities and prepare a plan and proposal for funding from The Rapides Foundation next year.

In the summer, the LSU team will prepare its Year One report on implementation. The Evaluation Center team will analyze data from the state assessment system and link the findings from this analysis to the findings from the implementation study, as well as from the surveys. The evaluation team will be pleased to respond to questions from schools and parishes regarding the evaluation and its findings.