2007-2008 Project SAVE Grant Program
Abstract
Abstracts are posted as submitted by the Project SAVE award winners
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Address 2581 7th Avenue
City New York / State NY / Zip 10039
Contact Person Dr. Gregory Hodge / Telephone with area code 212-491-4107
E-mail Address / Fax with area code 212-491-4414
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Project SAVE Grant 2007-08 Abstract: (type in the shaded area, and please note that ‘spell check’
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Region 10 serves schools in Harlem and Washington Heights. Achievement is near the bottom for the state, and state report cards indicate high percentages of students unable to meet social studies standards (grade 8) or high school graduation requirements (Grade 11 U.S. History and Government Regents exam). Also, our grade 12 Participation in Government courses fail to provide opportunities for real direct participation. We turned to an outside program, Syracuse University Project LEGAL led by Dr. Jim Carroll, which has a national reputation in both citizenship and character education, having achieved both state and national validation. In “Adapting” Carroll’s proven approaches, including his new Internet applications, our three instructional goals are as follows:
Goal 1: The target students will annually score significantly higher (p ≥ .05) on the state social studies exams than the comparison classes (students of teachers who have not been in the project in Region 10);
Goal 2: The target students will annually score significantly higher (p ≥ .05) from pre- to post-test on LEGAL’s validated tests of knowledge and comprehension of the U.S. legal/judicial system and related problem solving skills;
Goal 3: All target students (grades 7, 8, 11, 12) will complete comprehensive class projects on a contemporary social problem using the PPA through which they directly participate with key stakeholders in the community (legislators, government officials, etc.) in developing new public policy solutions to such problems and to undertake methods to foster their implementation.
Implementation will involve four new secondary schools each year that join with Frederick Douglas Academy in having teams of 4 American history and government teachers participate (20 total per year for a total of 60). Teachers will participate in a 3-day summer workshop and four release day workshops during the school year. Workshops will focus on improving teachers’ substantive knowledge of American history and government, particularly involving major Supreme Court cases involving due process and minority rights, and also public policy skills. All teachers will be required to develop WebQuests and they will receive ongoing technical assistance with implementation.
An outside evaluation company, SPEZ Co., Inc., will manage the evaluation. Goals 1 will be evaluated by comparing the state test data from the target teachers with the data from the entire Region and a t-test will be applied to determine whether the project students scored significantly higher than those not in the project. Since Project LEGAL’s test instruments have established validity and reliability, comparisons between pre- and post-test scores will be analyzed using t-tests for significance of differences. Regarding the evaluation of goal 3, since all of the project classes each year must complete a participation project using LEGAL’s Public Policy Analyst in collaboration with an outside community stakeholder, teachers and staff will evaluate those projects, and the evaluator will then do an overall content analysis; samples of projects will also be available. In addition to the goals, key project components, such as the workshops and WebQuests, will also be evaluated using formats developed by LEGAL and reviewed by the evaluator.
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