Learning Teams Scale-Up Study, 1997-2002
Learning Teams Scale-Up Study
Increasing Achievement by Focusing Grade Level Teams on Improving Classroom Learning: A Prospective, Quasi-experimental Study of Title 1 Schools
By William M. Saunders, PhD., Claude N. Goldenberg, PhD., and Ronald Gallimore, PhD.
Published in the American Educational Research Journal, Volume 46, No. 4 (2009).
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In 1997, LT researchers began a quasi-experimental scale-up study funded by the Spencer Foundation over a five year period (1997-2002) in nine elementary schools and six demographically comparable schools in the same district. All 15 schools were matched at the start of the study on student demographics and tested achievement: they served low income, largely English language learning students and were among the lowest performing in a very large urban district. By the end of fifth year, implementation of the LT program produced clear and reliable achievement gains on standardized assessments in all nine LT schools, gains that were significantly greater than those made by the six comparison schools (McDougall, et al., 2007; Saunders, et al., 2009). Over a six-year period, academic achievement on end-of-year Stanford 9 assessments increased in the nine LT schools from an average NCE (National Curve Equivalents) of less than 33 in 1997 to over 48 in 2002 (21st to 47th percentiles, respectively). The five comparison schools increased from 32 NCEs to 43 (20th to 37th percentiles), but they were unable to close the gap between their scores and the district-wide average which also rose. In other words, comparison group schools made no real gains over the six years of the study. In contrast, LT schools closed the gap with growth rates in achievement exceeding that of the district as a whole. By the fifth year of the project, LT growth rates were slightly higher than the district average, in spite of the fact that on average they served large percentages of ELLs from poor families. Researchers concluded that stable school-based settings, distributed leadership, and explicit protocols are key to effective teacher teams. Long-term sustainability of teacher teams depends on coherent and aligned district policies and practices.
