Research Results

In this presentation sponsored by Questar III-BOCES, Dr. Kristen Wilcox facilitates a discussion on how to prepare school leaders for the upcoming school year. Particular attention is given to the importance of communication between leaders and teachers.

In this presentation, Dr. Kristen Wilcox outlines some of the findings from NYKids’ study “Discovering Differential Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Educator Workforce in New York State.” As shown in this study, educators who work at schools with higher numbers of economically disadvantaged students demonstrated higher levels of stress and workplace dissatisfaction measured through both quantitative and qualitative analysis.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching hosts a summit every year that convenes representative from grant funding organizations, policymakers, researchers and professional practitioners among others in efforts to “learn to get better at getting better”. This year NYKids in partnership with Fort Plain Junior Senior High School, share how we have worked to translate research into practical improvements for navigating the pandemic. Carnegie’s virtual summit provides participants opportunities to learn about improvement science from Carnegie staff as well as learn from other improvers about how they have pursued their improvement work in all levels of education and from the U.S. and around the world. In this week’s blog we share some key highlights from NYKids’ Carnegie Summit presentation available on-demand from April 23rd-April 28th for those who might still have time to participate. This presentation may be of particular interest to those interested in improvement science. This blog offers links to our powerpoint and upcoming workshops and intensive direct support opportunities NYKids will be offering in the coming weeks to assist school and district leaders and their improvement teams navigate their fall reopening planning.

Using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of development, this presentation explores the multiple factors which influence rural youth’s aspirations. This case study draws on data gathered at Crown Point Central School over the course of several years.

This presentation given at the 2021 AERA Conference discusses how district and school leaders in positive outlier schools frame priorities and challenges they face.

This cross-case report is the second phase of our College and Career Readiness study. This report, entitled, Students’ Perspectives on Life After High School focuses on students’ voices from two of the positive outlier schools that participated in the first phase of this study. These two schools, Malverne Senior High School and Crown Point Central School, qualify as positive outliers because they are “atypical” in the sense that they have achieved a trend of above-predicted graduation rates among different populations of students consistently over time.

Dr. Kristen C. Wilcox delivered this presentation at this year’s New York State School Boards Association annual conference. The topic is on how Rural Research-Practice Partnerships can assist educators in improving school outcomes.

This report details the methods utilized in NYKids recent follow-up to the College and Career Readiness study of 2018. In this study, we return to two of the original seven positive-outlier high schools to conduct interviews with students about their experiences and perspectives. The report here details the sampling procedures, data collection and analysis, and includes the instruments used for this study.

This case study is one of two reports which build from our Phase I research into College and Career Readiness. For this study, we returned to odds-beating Malverne High School to conduct interviews and focus groups with students about their experiences in school and plans for after graduation.

This case study is one of two reports which build from our Phase I research into College and Career Readiness. For this study, we returned to odds-beating Crown Point Central School to conduct interviews and focus groups with students about their experiences in school and plans for after graduation.

How do high school principals use data to make decisions? Dr. Lisa Cala Ruud explored this question in her recent dissertation study based on the NYKids College and Career Readiness Phase 1 Study. Drawing on interviews, surveys, and document reviews, Cala Ruud focused on three secondary schools with above-predicted graduation rates in her analysis. Cala Ruud shows how these principals creatively use data to address increasingly complex challenges in their schools.

In this video interview conducted by NYKids Director, Dr. Kristen Wilcox, and NYKids Post-Doctorate Fellow, Dr. Aaron Leo; Dr. Vincent Romano, Principal at Malverne Senior High School, a positive outlier school in Malverne, NY, shares insight into the ways his school and district have built upon existing instructional and education technology plans to develop remote learning strategies in response to COVID-19 school closures. The discussion explores current goals, challenges, and successes related to the quick switch to remote learning on topics such as: developing, implementing, and supporting online synchronous teaching and learning; adapting to new approaches for using technology in instruction; the importance of communication and connective support for students, families, and teachers; considerations for educational equity and social-emotional learning; and future strategic planning and preparation for ongoing considerations related to remote teaching and learning.

In this video interview conducted by NYKids Director, Dr. Kristen Wilcox, and NYKids Post-Doctorate Fellow, Dr. Aaron Leo, Julie Verdonik, Principal at Maple Grove Jr/Sr High School, a positive outlier school in Bemus Point, NY, shares insight into the ways her school and district have built upon prior district initiatives centered around the use of educational technology to develop a remote learning plan in response to COVID-19 school closures. The discussion explores the initial plan design, plan implementation, and the ongoing development of these efforts, including: reflections on experiences to date, strategies for addressing challenges, the use of technology to build virtual supports for students and teachers, and considerations for future needs and planning.

In this video, Dr. Kristen Wilcox, NYKids Director of Research and Development, shares the presentation of a 2020 Carnegie Virtual Summit invited poster session, “Catalysts for Improving Diverse Student High School Graduation Rates in Positive Outlier Schools”. The presentation was offered as part of the 2020 Carnegie Virtual Summit on April 1 – 3, 2020 as part of an asynchronous poster session under the strand, “Improving Capacity”.

In an accompanying video (available at: https://ny-kids.org/nykids-carnegie-summit-2020-virtual-poster-presentation-2/), Dr. Kristen Wilcox, NYKids Director of Research and Development, shares this NYKids presentation for a 2020 Carnegie Virtual Summit invited poster session, “Catalysts for Improving Diverse Student High School Graduation Rates in Positive Outlier Schools”. The presentation was shared during the 2020 Carnegie Virtual Summit on April 1 – 3, 2020 as part of an asynchronous poster session under the strand, “Improving Capacity”.

Workshop participants learned how they can model the work of Improvement Science (IS) and engage others in using IS strategies and tools for continuous improvement.

Several decades of research has generated a near-consensus on the link between positive student outcomes and effective engagement between educators and families. Despite the widespread acknowledgement of this connection, many educators continue to struggle to engage families in ways that are both culturally responsive and sensitive to power dynamics. Though barriers to family engagement have been explored in depth, little research exists about what family engagement looks like in schools with above-predicted student outcomes.

This research offers insight into family engagement through two case studies of secondary schools in New York State—chosen for study for their odds-beating graduation outcomes. Educators in these schools share in common the strategies of drawing on local resources and engaging family members in culturally responsive and collaborative ways with particular sensitivities to power imbalances. These findings hold implications with regard to how barriers to family engagement may be overcome in demographically diverse contexts with histories of better graduation outcomes.

This presentation explores the relationship between teacher and student agency at odds-beating secondary schools. We find that teachers, when offered opportunities to act as agents, tend to offer similar opportunities to their students similarly. This research further suggests that affordances for teachers to assert agency can mitigate the constraining effects of state accountability system compliance-oriented practices.

This presentation provides insight into how Improvement Science can guide school improvement by helping schools and districts to “see the system” when developing goals, plans, and processes to effect changes to improve student outcomes. An overview of NYKids COMPASS is shown as a process for using improvement science to guide school teams for continuous improvement, along with a case example of how COMPASS was applied within a research to practice partnership and information about NYKids resources designed to support school improvement work.

In 2017-18, research teams investigated 10 high schools regarding the preparation of critical needs students for college and career. Three of these schools were typically-performing (with graduation rates as predicted for the student population served) and the remainder were odds-beating schools (with graduation rates above predicted for the student population served). The cross-case report featured in this presentation describes the four themes observed across all odds-beating secondary schools as illustrated through four case studies.

Drawing from lessons learned in other sectors, educators are increasingly looking for ways to address longstanding outcome disparities for children and youth growing up in poverty and from diverse ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds. When seeking to improve student outcomes, the Six Principles of Improvement Science can guide educators to develop strategies for continuous improvement. The NYKids’ COMPASS-AIM process melds the principles of improvement science with research on odds-beating schools to help schools and districts tackle complex problems effecting student success.

Involvement of families in their children’s education has been linked to numerous positive indicators such as homework completion, student motivation, and academic achievement. However, many schools conceive of involvement in narrow, individualistic terms and struggle to families in meaningful ways which are culturally-relevant, community-derived, and sensitive to power imbalances. Drawing on in-depth case studies from seven odds-beating schools, this paper provides examples of authentic family engagement which foster empowerment and utilize community resources to build trust between schools and families. The findings presented here provide a partial template for schools seeking to improve relationships with parents.

High schools that effectively serve culturally and ethnically diverse students are a national priority. This mixed methods case study examines the design and practices of high schools called “odds-beaters” because they have above-average graduation rates for ethnically, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse students. Sample high schools are characterized in part by educators’ incorporation of positive youth development (PYD) priorities. Expressed in the ways educators talk, PYD practices are a school improvement resource, facilitating students’ engagement, agency, and identity development.

In 2017-18, research teams investigated 10 high schools regarding the preparation of critical needs students for college and career. Three of these schools were typically-performing (with graduation rates as predicted for the student population served) and the remainder were odds-beating schools (with graduation rates above predicted for the student population served). This cross-case report describes the four themes observed across all odds-beating secondary schools.

In 2017-18, research teams investigated 10 high schools regarding the preparation of critical needs students for college and career. Three of these schools were typically performing (with graduation rates as predicted for the student population served) and the remainder were odds-beating schools (with graduation rates above-predicted for the student population served). This reports describes the methods and procedures for the study.