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Addendum to 2021 Evaluation of the School Turnaround Network and the School Turnaround Leadership Development Program

Link to Resource: Descriptive Analyses of Connect for Success, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, and Accountability Pathways

Authors: Kaitlin Mork, Benjamin Shear, and Elena Diaz-Bilello

This is an addendum to a report prepared for the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) by the Center for Assessment, Design, Research & Evaluation (CADRE) at CU Boulder (Shear et al., 2021). CDE requested an addendum to the 2021 CADRE report presenting similar descriptive analyses for schools that participated in the Connect for Success (CFS) program and providing initial descriptive analyses of academic outcomes for schools participating in two other Empowering Action for School Improvement (EASI) programs: The Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports (MTSS) and Accountability Pathways Planning and Implementation (Pathways).

In this addendum, we provide a brief overview of CFS, MTSS, and Pathways programs. We first describe the demographic characteristics and prior academic performance among students enrolled in all schools receiving support through these programs, which we compare to the population of all schools in the state or to schools who were eligible to participate in a CDE-offered turnaround program but did not. Next, we describe trends in the Colorado School Performance Framework (SPF) accountability ratings among participating schools in the years leading up to, during, and following participation in each of the three programs. Finally, we describe trends in average student achievement and growth scores among schools participating in these programs as measured by the Colorado Mathematics and English Language Arts state assessments administered in grades 3-8. For schools participating in CFS, we also compare the trends in SPF ratings and achievement outcomes to a group of comparison schools that were eligible to participate in the CFS but did not participate in a CDE-offered turnaround program during the studied time period. We conclude with a discussion of the results and highlight the next phase of planned work focused on estimating the effects of participating in these CDE-offered programs on student academic outcomes.