Grantee: / Corona-Norco Unified School District—Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Services
PR Award Number: / U396C100467
Project Title: / Write Up
Project Director: / Colleen Hawkins
chawkins@
Amount of Award: / $5,000,000
Length of Award: / 5 years
Absolute Priority: / High Standards and High-Quality Assessments
List of Partners (with states for each) / Discovery Education Sonic Consulting LLC
Project Website: / TBD
Description of Project: / Currently CNUSD is reporting between a 20% to 60 % proficiency gap in our ELA scores in the areas of written conventions, writing strategies and writing applications for our high needs groups - EL, SED and SWD. To close this gap we propose adding specific technology components and ongoing classroom coaching to enhance our writing program with immediate information and feedback to support identified areas of need for each of our students. CN USD’s Write Up program includes:
·  Implementation of Cte Writer, a powerful online writing program, in 8 schools. The i3 grant funding will provide 5 elementary schools, 2 intermediate schools and 1 high school with the additional technology and professional development to implement Cte Writer. Teachers at these schools will learn to use this tool in their teaching of writing allowing them to provide more specific immediate feedback to students during the writing process. Curriculum coaching in effective writing instruction will also be an integral part of supporting our high needs populations to excel in their learning new content and writing about their thinking.
·  Calibration of Corona-Norco Unified School District Curricular Materials with Discovery Education will provide visual and audio media that enhances the acquisition of new vocabulary and background knowledge that will be used in the learning process. Professional Development and on-site coaching will be provided by Discovery Education and district staff to integrate in these resources with the writing instruction. At the high school level, writing mechanics, grammar and the use of academic vocabulary in the writing process are areas of need. To address this need, we propose developing online lessons/courses to support improved student writing in all areas of the curriculum. These tools will focus on the identified areas of need, but also on
Description of Project Continued: / preparing students with college and career ready skills. Professional development, classroom coaching, and enhanced college/career counseling supports will be designed to assist high school students in closing the achievement gap.
Description of Evaluation: / Evaluators will examine implementation, effectiveness, and periodic progress, and evaluation results will inform data-driven decisions for program modification. The methods of evaluation will be aligned with the goals and objectives of the project, including the performance measures, research design, data collection and analysis. The evaluation will incorporate multiple measures with several sources of data (e.g., the California Content Standards Test, standards-based benchmark assessments, observations, and teacher surveys, use of technology, Early Assessment Program results and California High School Exit Examination pass rates). A quasi-experimental matched comparison group design was selected as the most rigorous design possible given the constraints of equal access. Students at target schools will be matched with students in the district at comparison (non-program) schools on several variables, including prior ability, school size, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disabilities, gender and English proficiency. All quantitative outcomes will be analyzed contrasting target and comparison group performance.
Project Evaluator: / Lorie Sousa
951-675-2060
Organization: / Key Data Systems