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CADRE has partnered with the  at CU Boulder to investigate how peer tutoring influences the language development and academic achievement of English-language-learners in the Adams 12 school district in Colorado.

Derek Briggs, CADRE Faculty Affiliate Erin Furtak, Graduate Research Assistants Amy Burkhardt, Sandy Student, Clarissa Deverel-Rico, and instructional staff and teachers at Aurora Public Schools instructors have collaborated in this multi-year partnership to improve STEM education for all students through the development of a comprehensive approach to science assessment that also supports teacher professional learning. This partnership documents how a school district supports science teachers in designing, enacting and reflecting upon formative assessments to meet district reform initiatives. 

Elena Diaz-Bilello, and Graduate Research Assistant, Kaitlin Mork, are working as thought partners in the design and build out of selected local accountability indicators for four districts (Boulder Valley, Cañon City, Greeley and Gunnison) focused on piloting opportunity to learn measures.

Elena Diaz-Bilello, Kim Cho and Graduate Research Assistant, Medjy Pierre-Louis are conducting case studies of schools using performance-based assessments (PBAs) to improve teaching and learning during the ongoing health pandemic. Findings from this PBA work will help inform the Assessment Unit’s ongoing efforts to pilot the use of these performance assessments as part of graduation requirements. 

Benjamin Shear, Elena Diaz-Bilello, and Graduate Research Assistants Sandy Student and Medjy Pierre-Louis are collaborating with members of the Colorado Department of Education's Accountability Unit and School & District Transformation Unit to begin an evaluation of state-funded supports provided to Colorado schools identified as eligible for additional supports under the state accountability system. The study will combine statistical analyses of administrative data with case studies of focus schools in order to better understand how two particular forms of support, the School Turnaround Leadership Development Program and the School Turnaround Network, are being used to improve student learning.

Benjamin Shear, Elena Diaz-Bilello, and Graduate Research Assistant Sandy Student are working with members of the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) Accountability Unit in an on-going collaboration. This work provides technical assistance to CDE by investigating relevant statistical and psychometric properties of the growth metrics used in Colorado's school accountability framework as well as other statistical questions related to accountability. They are currently conducting a number of studies which include informing and evaluating proposed uses and interpretations of the growth metrics.

Derek Briggs and Graduate Research Assistant Sarah Wellberg are working in collaboration with Curriculum Associates on a program of work studying iReady Diagnostic Assessments in the 2020 academic school year. This study is intended to help Curriculum Associates with its goal of enacting improvements and refinements to the methods used to model and report information about student growth. 

This partnership between CADRE and APED represents a long-standing collaboration between the two organizations to continue building out and evaluating meaningful teaching and learning experiences for students in the Arts and Physical Education throughout the district. Elena Diaz-Bilello leads this partnership work with APED. The nature and scope of the project varies each year depending on partner needs.

Jessica Alzen, Joe Polman and Karla Scornavacco of the CU School of Education have partnered with International Baccalaureate schools in Colorado, Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland to study the presence and influence of inquiry-based teaching and learning at International Baccalaureate Schools for lower, middle, and upper grades in each geographic area. In addition, they are investigating potential change over time as well as connections between inquiry-based teaching and learning and other student outcomes such as grade point average.

CADRE Faculty Affiliate Bill Penuel and Jessica Alzen are working with collaborators at Northwestern University and University of California Davis on this project to identify variations in teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and practices as they enact science curriculum designed to support the Next Generation Science Standards and purposeful sensemaking in science classrooms. The study involves professional development during the summer as well as regular virtual study groups to support teachers throughout enactment of the curriculum.

Derek Briggs, Jessica Alzen, and Kim Cho are working with collaborators in the Applied Math Department at CU Boulder to conduct an evaluation of the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis (LISA) housed at CU. The study includes collecting empirical data for the effectiveness of LISA overall as well as identifying if working with LISA is an effective way of training students in science, technology, and engineering disciplines to be effective statistical collaborators.