Gray, Abigail M
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Publication Principal Ownership of an Instructional Initiative: Advancing a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Leadership(2014-01-01) Gray, Abigail M.ABSTRACT Principal Ownership of an Instructional Initiative: Advancing a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Leadership Abigail Gray There is a need for unified theory as to how and why principals' engagement with instructional initiatives does or does not develop, and how that engagement manifests, both in specific leadership behaviors and in changes in teacher practice. Such theory could inform policy decision-making by shedding light on the mechanisms that may facilitate principals' engagement with reform initiatives, and by clarifying what that engagement might ultimately produce. This study seeks to advance a new theoretical perspective on principal behavior in the context of instructional reform by examining the implementation of a literacy intervention through the lens of principal ownership. Using structural equation modeling and targeted qualitative inquiry, the study tests a hypothesized conceptual framework for principal ownership which posits that three antecedents (control, knowledge, and self-investment) contribute to principals' engagement in ownership behavior relative to an instructional initiative. The framework further posits that this ownership behavior--specifically, change promotion relative to the initiative--leads to changes in teacher collaboration around the reform, and ultimately influences classroom practice. This framework builds upon extant theory regarding school leadership, the processes around school change, and psychological ownership. While further research is needed to confirm these findings, the results of this exploratory study suggest that the hypothesized relationships are plausible. Significant pathways are found between the antecedents and the ownership behavior, and between the behavior and teacher collaboration. Mediational analysis of the pathways between principals' ownership behavior and the reform's reported influence on classroom instruction reveals that both the direct pathway and the indirect pathway (mediated by teacher collaboration) are significant. The findings of case-study research focused on three schools largely support the SEM study's conclusions and the hypothesized relationships. Viewed together, the quantitative and qualitative findings highlight lingering questions and directions for future research.Publication Evaluation of the i3 Scale-Up of Reading Recovery | Year Two Report, 2012-13(2014-12-01) Goldsworthy, Heather; Armijo, Michael; Gray, Abigail M; Sirinides, Philip M; Blalock, Toscha J; Anderson-Clark, Helen; Schiera, Andrew J; Blackman, Horatio; Gillespie, Jessica; May, Henry; Sam, CecileReading Recovery is a short-term early intervention designed to help the lowest-achieving readers in first grade reach average levels of classroom performance in literacy. Students identified to receive Reading Recovery meet individually with a specially trained Reading Recovery teacher every school day for 30-minute lessons over a period of 12 to 20 weeks. The purpose of these lessons is to support rapid acceleration of each child’s literacy learning. In 2010, The Ohio State University received a Scaling Up What Works grant from the U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund to expand the use of Reading Recovery across the country. The award was intended to fund the training of 3,675 new Reading Recovery teachers in U.S. schools, thereby expanding service to an additional 88,200 students. The Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) was contracted to conduct an independent evaluation of the i3 scale-up of Reading Recovery over the course of five years. The evaluation includes parallel rigorous experimental and quasi-experimental designs for estimating program impacts, coupled with a large-scale mixed-methods study of program implementation. This report presents the findings of the second year of the evaluation. The primary goals of this evaluation are: a) to provide experimental evidence of the impacts of Reading Recovery on student learning under this scale-up effort ; b) to assess the success of the scale-up in meeting the i3 grant’s expansion goals; and c) to document the implementation of the scale-up and fidelity to program standards. This document is the second in a series of three reports based on our external evaluation of the Reading Recovery i3 Scale-Up. This report presents results from the impact and implementation studies conducted over the 2012-2013 school year—the third year of the scale-up effort and the second full year of the evaluation. In order to estimate the impacts of the program, a sample of first graders who had been selected to receive Reading Recovery were randomly assigned to a treatment group that received Reading Recovery immediately, or to a control group that did not receive Reading Recovery until the treatment group had exited the intervention. The reading achievement of students in this sample was assessed using a standardized assessment of reading achievement—the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS). The data for the implementation study include extensive interviews and surveys with Reading Recovery teachers, teacher leaders, site coordinators, University Training Center directors, members of the i3 project leadership team at The Ohio State University, and principals and first-grade teachers in schools involved in the scale-up. Case studies were also conducted in nine i3 scale-up schools to observe how Reading Recovery operates in different contexts.Publication Discipline in Context: Suspension, Climate, and PBIS in the School District of Philadelphia(2017-10-01) Gray, Abigail M; Sirinides, Philip M; Fink, Ryan; Flack, Adrianne; DuBois, Tesla; Morrison, Katrina; Hill, KirstenThe report details a two-year exploratory, mixed-methods research study on the disciplinary practices and climate of schools serving K–8 students in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). Findings reveal that SDP schools are making efforts to reduce suspensions and improve climate, but critical barriers to these efforts include resource limitations and philosophical misalignments between teachers and school leaders. The study identified three profiles among SDP schools serving K–8 students based on information about disciplinary practices and climate, and found that these profiles are predictive of suspension and academic outcomes. Students attending schools with collaborative climates and less punitive approaches to discipline have lower risk of being suspended and better academic outcomes. The report offers a series of recommendations for strengthening the implementation of climate initiatives, including Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), in challenging urban settings.Publication Reading Recovery: An Evaluation of the Four-Year i3 Scale-Up(2016-03-01) Sirinides, Philip M; Gray, Abigail; May, Henry; Goldsworthy, HeatherCPRE released its evaluation of one of the most ambitious and well-documented expansions of a U.S. instructional curriculum. The rigorous independent evaluation of the Investing in Innovation (i3) scale-up of Reading Recovery, a literacy intervention for struggling first graders, was a collaboration between CPRE and the Center for Research on Education and Social Policy (CRESP) at the University of Delaware. The CPRE/CRESP evaluation revealed that students who participated in Reading Recovery significantly outperformed students in the control group on measures of overall reading, reading comprehension, and decoding. These effects were similarly large for English language learners and students attending rural schools, which were the student subgroups of priority interest for the i3 scale-up grant program. The study included an in-depth analysis of program implementation. Key findings focus on the contextual factors of the school and teachers that support the program’s success and the components of instructional strength in Reading Recovery.Publication Evaluation of the i3 Scale-up of Reading Recovery | Year One Report, 2011-12(2013-08-01) Gray, Abigail M; Gillespie, Jessica; Sirinides, Philip M; Sam, Cecile; Goldsworthy, Heather; May, Henry; Armijo, Michael; Tognatta, NamrataReading Recovery (RR) is a short-term early intervention designed to help the lowest-achieving readers in first grade reach average levels of classroom performance in literacy. Students identified to receive Reading Recovery meet individually with a specially trained Reading Recovery (RR) teacher every school day for 30-minute lessons over a period of 12 to 20 weeks. The purpose of these lessons is to support rapid acceleration of each child’s literacy learning. In 2010, The Ohio State University received a Scaling Up What Works grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund to expand the use of Reading Recovery across the country. The award was intended to fund the scale-up of Reading Recovery by training 3,675 new RR Teachers in U.S. schools, thereby expanding capacity to allow service to an additional 88,200 students. The Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) was contracted to conduct an independent evaluation of the i3 scale up of Reading Recovery over the course of five years. The evaluation includes parallel rigorous experimental and quasi-experimental designs for estimating program impacts, coupled with a large-scale mixed-methods study of program implementation under the i3 scale-up. This report presents findings through the second year of the evaluation. The primary goals of this evaluation were: a) to assess the success of the scale-up in meeting the i3 grant’s expansion goals; b) to document the implementation of scale-up and fidelity to program standards; and, c) to provide experimental evidence of the impacts of Reading Recovery on student learning under this scale-up effort.Publication The i3 Validation of SunBay Digital Mathematics(2018-03-31) Sirinides, Philip; Gray, Abigail MDecades of research have emphasized the need for engaging, accessible ways to help students learn fundamental mathematical concepts. Research also shows that teacher beliefs about teaching and learning have an outsized influence on the quality and effectiveness of curricular interventions. This article reports results of an independent evaluation of the i3 implementation of SunBay Digital Mathematics, a middle-school math intervention, and examines the program’s impacts on both student progress and teachers’ beliefs about math instruction. Prior studies have demonstrated the efficacy of SunBay Math for students of varied levels of prior achievement. This independent evaluation included a randomized controlled trial in 60 Florida middle schools during the 2015-16 school year and a mixed-methods implementation study. No impact on student achievement was observed overall; however, the evaluation did reveal positive impacts on teachers’ classroom practices and beliefs about the use of technology in math instruction. Inadequate implementation of instructional units and lack of impact on teachers for targeted beliefs about math instruction likely contributed to lack of overall program effects.