Cynthia Char (PI), Char Associates
TERC, a not-for-profit educational
research and development corporation in Cambridge MA, is
collaborating with national public library leaders to make
mathematics a visible and fun part of library programming
for elementary grades children and their families. They are
developing materials for story times and crafts that integrate
literacy and math; supporting children's librarians in outreach
to local after-school programs; and conducting research on
program impact. As a result of this project, librarians and
after-school educators will increase capacity to incorporate
math into programming for peers, children, and parents, and
children and their families will gain understanding of and
appreciation for math. Char Associates will lead the external
summative evaluation on program impact throughout the four-year
project. (Funder: National Science Foundation)
*To view a complete list of Char
Associates' Publications, please click here.
Cynthia Char (PI), Char Associates
ClearLab is a
project at Muzzy Lane Software to create innovative games that will
support science learning at the middle school level. The project
will develop a series of immersive 3D games that can be played in
the browser – at school, the library, at home – anywhere with access
to the internet. During the project’s first year, Char Associates is
conducting a series of formative evaluation studies to inform the
product’s design. (Funder: DARPA)
Cynthia Char (PI), Char Associates
The Science Associates
Program at Swarthmore College has established peer-facilitated
study groups designed to improve retention of prospective science,
mathematics and engineering majors and to facilitate mentoring
relationships between older and younger college students
interested in the sciences. Char Associates is conducting
formative, process and summative evaluations for the 3-year
project. (Funder: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Swarthmore
College)
Cynthia Char (PI), Char Associates
The Center for New American Media
(CNAM) has embarked on a new educational initiative to develop
an educational multi-media product designed to teach American
cultural history to middle school and high school youth.
The project, called American Dynasties, is one of
seven projects across the country, funded by the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting (CPB)’s American History
and Civics Initiative. The centerpiece of the American
Dynasties project is an interactive history game – a
narrative, role-playing 3-D computer game that allows students
to put themselves in the place of Americans from past eras,
learning about what life was like and making decisions that
will affect their future. For American Dynasties,
CNAM, a long-time independent documentary film maker for
public television, is collaborating with noted game company,
Muzzy Lane. Char Associates is conducting formative research
and classroom field tests of the prototype game materials.
(Funder: Corporation for Public Broadcasting)
Cynthia Char (PI), Char Associates
The Monadnock Regional School District
Public School Choice (MPRSOC) is one of 13 grantees of
a US DOE Voluntary Public School Choice grant. Begun in
2002,
the five-year project is designed to bring new public school
choices to southwestern New Hampshire, and to enhance the
quality of education that existing schools provide so that
all local public schools become schools of choice. The
project supports the development of new programs within
existing
public schools, as well as new small schools in the region,
through capacity-building efforts targeting schools, teachers,
parents, and community. A major focus has been the development
of thematic programs and smaller learning communities within
the schools. The principal areas evaluated have been the
degree to which the project has yielded distinctive, new
educational programs of choice; the choice programs’ educational
impact on students and families; and the effectiveness of
the project’s professional development efforts to build
the educational capacities of the region’s schools
and staff. (Funder: US Department of Education)
Cynthia Char (PI), Char Associates
Environmental Detectives (ED) is a
new environmental science curriculum for middle school students,
developed by the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich,
Vermont. The Montshire worked collaboratively with research
faculty from Dartmouth College and with teachers from New
Hampshire and Vermont to design, pilot, and develop the curriculum.
The curriculum centers on hands-on investigations based on
student formulated research questions concerning dose response,
and students conducting experiments of their own scientific
design. The evaluation examined how teachers chose to incorporate
the ED curriculum into their different science curriculum
and classroom practices, and assessed the kind of student
engagement and learning afforded by the curriculum. (Funder:
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences)
Download Full Year 2 Report Here (you
will need to get Adobe Reader to view this report, available
free here)
Download Year 3 Executive Summary Here
Download Full Year 3 Report Here
Cynthia Char (PI), Char Associates
The Consortium for Mathematics and
Its Applications (COMAP)’s Building Capacity for Change
(BCC) project is an effort to introduce a range of improvement
options in mathematics education to school districts in underserved
areas in New Mexico. The BCC program has two basic program
components: a Mathematics Summer Institute for school districts
interested in learning about standards-based elementary mathematics
education, and follow-up on-site consulting for districts
engaged in more intensive and sustained curriculum reform
work in their schools. The evaluation’s primary objectives
were to study the nature and initial impact of the BCC work,
and to capture the realities of the school districts that
the BCC serves. A major focus was to identify aspects of
the BCC program most instrumental in promoting a district’s
willingness and ability to begin exploring the use of standards-based
mathematics curricula in their classrooms. The evaluation
documents how the BCC program took shape and evolved to respond
to the teacher development, leadership, and curriculum needs
of New Mexico districts that were new to standards-based
mathematics. (Funder: NSF)
Download
Full Report Here
Cynthia Char (PI) and Saul Rockman, Rockman Et Al
The Living on Earth Ecological Literacy Project is an interdisciplinary
curriculum for middle and high school students that integrates
radio journalism, ecological literacy, and knowledge of global
environmental change. The project is designed to build a consortium
of schools, informal science organizations, and local public
radio stations to create a corps of environmental communicators
and radio journalists with expertise in journalism and environmental
science, skills in digital technology, and creativity in global
change documentation. Char served as the PI for Rockman Et Al,
a San-Francisco-based research firm, hired to conduct the evaluation.
The evaluation was designed to provide project staff with information
on how the curriculum was being used and received by teachers
and students in participating schools across the country, and
to identify project components that were effective as well as
those in need of improvement. (Funder: NSF)
Download Full Report Here (you
will need to get Adobe Reader to view this report, available
free here)
Cynthia Char (PI), Char Associates
Science In the Stacks (SITS) is a collaboration between the
Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, Vermont and eight small
community libraries in New Hampshire and Vermont to create
a set of traveling science exhibits for libraries. At the heart
of the project is an attempt to establish a true collaborative
relationship between the museum and the various libraries.
The SITS evaluation assessed whether the exhibits and program
had the desired impact on libraries and families, and identified
best ways to structure a process fostering genuine collaboration
between museum and library professionals. (Funder: Institute
for Museum and Library Services)
Download Full Report Here (you will need to get Adobe Reader
to view this report, available free here)
Cynthia Char (PI) and Saul Rockman,
Rockman Et Al
The Boston-Harvard Leadership Development
Initiative (LDI), a partnership of the Harvard Graduate School
of Education and the Boston Public Schools, is an effort designed
to build the leadership capacity of educators in the Boston
Public Schools to enhance overall academic achievement for
students. Through its summer institutes, workshops, seminars,
consultants, and faculty, the LDI program provided school professionals
with a diverse range of program components and services. The
evaluation conducted an initial assessment of the reach and
impact of the LDI program on the twelve LDI schools and its
participating school team members, and the extent to which
LDI activities reinforce and enhance the whole school reform
initiatives in the Boston Public Schools. The evaluation also
assessed the degree to which the program contributed to the
professional development of the Harvard graduate students serving
as LDI consultants to the schools, and enhanced the faculty
and programs of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The
final evaluation helped project staff and partnering organizations
identify program elements that are most important to preserve
or modify in future rounds of the program. (Funders: FleetBoston
Financial Foundation and Harvard University)
Download Full Year 4 Report Here (you
will need to get Adobe Reader to view this report, available
free here)
Download Year 4 Executive Summary Here
Download Full Year 5 Report Here
Download Year 5 Executive Summary Here
Cynthia Char (PI) and Saul Rockman, Rockman Et Al
MetroLINC is a partnership between the Boston and Watertown,
Massachusetts public schools that is designed to improve student
performance through the integration of technology to support
statewide and district-wide curriculum standards. Its primary
focus is to find innovative ways to help teachers gain the
technology skills and understanding they need to integrate
technology effectively in the classroom. A key component of
the project is a mentoring model in which a mentor teacher
works closely with a small group of teachers from across the
district interested in adapting a technology unit for their
classrooms. Several hundred teachers participated each year
of this five-year project. Char served as the PI for Rockman
Et Al, a San Francisco-based research firm, hired to conduct
the five-year evaluation. The evaluation examined the effectiveness
of the professional development efforts in the two districts,
the process and classroom impact of the mentoring model, and
the challenges of inter-district collaboration. (US Department
of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant)
Download
Full Year
4 Report Here
Download
Full Year
3 Report Here
Download Full Year
2 Report Here
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