The evaluation will run from late Term 2, 2024 until the end of Term 4, 2025.
Participating schools will receive summary reports about classroom practice and student progress in literacy. Participating schools will help grow the evidence base on how to improve professional learning to benefit schools, teachers and students across Australia.
About the evaluation
The Department of Education WA is working with the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) to evaluate the Centre for Excellence in the Explicit Teaching of Literacy professional learning program (CFE program).
What's involved
The Department will shortlist expressions of interest (EOIs) for suitability to the CFE program. From this shortlist, AERO will then randomly allocate 20 schools to participate in the CFE program. Those not selected will be invited to become a Reference school. This is so that we can conduct a high-quality evaluation of the impact of the CFE program on teaching practice and student learning, and contribute to the evidence base for effective professional learning.
Only Intern schools will participate in the CFE program.
Both Intern and Reference schools will participate in the evaluation
Reference schools will participate in surveys on and monitoring of student literacy achievement (accessing PAT-R Adaptive and DIBELS 8th edition provisioned through AERO).
Intern schools will participate in the CFE program in addition to surveys, interviews and monitoring of student literacy achievement.
The data collected from Intern and Reference schools will allow us to understand the usefulness and impact of the CFE program and its approach to professional learning.
For both Reference and Intern schools, participation involves:
- principal and teacher surveys (one 30-minute online survey per year)
- collection of literacy progress data using PAT-R Adaptive and DIBELS 8th edition. AERO will provide free access to these assessments, as well as training and resources to support schools with collection and analysis of the data.
For Intern schools, the evaluation also involves:
- the principal and intern teachers completing the CFE program activities. Some of these intern teachers will also be invited to participate in interviews and/or classroom observations. Other teachers of literacy in the school will also be invited to complete 2 surveys.
Benefits of participation
Reference and Intern schools will receive reports on literacy instruction and student progress that can support self-reflection and school planning. These reports will provide an overview of knowledge and use of evidence-based literacy teaching practices and student literacy progress in their school.
Schools will be reimbursed for the time teachers spend participating in surveys and interviews.
All schools will also have the option of attending webinars conducted by AERO on education topics that may be of interest to their staff.
For schools that don't already use PAT Reading Adaptive or DIBELS, AERO will support administration of these assessments and interpretation of the data.
For more information
Contact Andrew Wearring (Senior Researcher) at [email protected] or 0499 864 225.