Projects
Understanding Social Network Structure in Schools Under Corrective Action: A Longitudinal Comparative Analysis of Research Use and Diffusion in Urban Districts
This ongoing project focuses on how urban systems and schools in need of improvement (defined by NCLB corrective action) diagnose problems, identify strategies, and define, acquire, use and diffuse research evidence to improve under accountability sanctions. In this longitudinal comparative study, we are examining how social networks support or constrain efforts at organizational learning and acquire and use research evidence throughout urban districts. In addition, we are exploring how educators both define and distinguish between types of evidence and whether these are responsive to identified issues. We draw on mixed methodologies to understand these important areas, including social network and case study analyses. Our study includes secondary schools in two urban districts that represent a broad spectrum of issues, demographics, and opportunities. The San Diego Unified School District is the second largest district in California and eighth largest in the U.S., with 20% of their schools in NCLB program improvement. The Rochester City School District is a mid-size urban district (although one of the largest in New York), with 24% of its schools designated as needing improvement. By examining the type of resources that flow through social networks in these districts and corrective action schools, we hope to affect change in practice and policy that ultimately improves outcomes for youth.
Funded by the WT Grant Foundation
Contact: Alan J. Daly, ajdaly@ucsd.edu
Evaluation of the San Diego Striving Readers Project
This study examines the implementation and impact of a federally-funded literacy adolescent literacy program for middle and high school students in the San Diego Unified School District. The Strategies for Literacy Independence across the Curriculum (SLIC) program targets students defined as 'striving readers' (2 years or more below grade level in reading) and gives them the intensive support and assistance they need to read at grade level by the end of grade 10 and to pass the CAHSEE. The project includes several components, including a randomized experiment to evaluate the impact of the program on student performance, a qualitative study of the overall program implementation, and case studies of selected contexts where the program is operating.
USDOE Striving Readers website
Contact: Carolyn Huie Hofstetter, chofstet@ucsd.edu
Distributed Learning
Distributed Learning is a new perspective on learning, in which the spatial and temporal distribution of learning is examined along with the forms of mediation that span the distribution. This perspective draws upon several theoretical frameworks for individual and group learning, including sociocultural historical activity theory, distributed cognition, and organizational learning.
Distributed Learning website
Contact: Jim Levin, jalevin@ucsd.edu
Maximizing Opportunities & Minimizing Obstacles to Post-Secondary Education +
The University of California's All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity (UC ACCORD) is conducting a 5-year study as part of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's United States Special Initiative, Breaking the Intergenerational Cycle of Poverty through Post-secondary Education+ (PSE+). UC ACCORD, located on the campus of UCLA, is a network of distinguished scholars in education, law, urban planning, psychology, and the social sciences at nine University of California campuses. Under the direction of UC ACCORD Director Daniel Solorzano and UCSD Professor Amanda Datnow, UC ACCORD faculty are conducting a coordinated, multi-method set of studies of 16-26 year olds who are not on-track to attain a post-secondary credential with value in the labor market. These studies will produce new and useful knowledge about multiple segments of this population, and in particular about the opportunities and obstacles to post-secondary education in their lives and communities. In addition to informing PSE+, the findings of these studies can advance the research and policy agenda on US poverty, and ultimately help reduce poverty and expand opportunity for low-income young people of color.
Pathways to Postsecondary Success website: http://pathways.gseis.ucla.edu
Gates initiative on post-secondary education website
Contact: Amanda Datnow, adatnow@ucsd.edu
