Data Collection Design and Sampling Strategy Transcript

Describe and explain your choice of design.

Identify what information needs to be collected and how that information will address the evaluation questions. Explain your choice of methods to collect that data and how you would administer those methods.

Explain how the design takes into account the interests of stakeholders.

Identify possible limitations, including participant availability, likely biases, limited resources, and appropriate settings.

I chose Causal Designs as the data collection strategy. This design is intended to answer causal evaluative questions like: Did X program cause Y outcome? (Fitzpatrick et al., 2010). This is a good fit for evaluating the PLC program and its outcomes. In order to answer the questions developed in the planning phases of the evaluation project, a variety of data will need to be collected. Teachers knowledge of the Common Core standards will need to be collected, to answer the evaluation question: How does the school ensure that all teachers understand the common core state standards on which the PLC is based? This data can be collected in teachers instructional roadmap designs. In order to collect data on the processes that are used to create collaborative groups for the PLC, the evaluator will need to interview the principal who created the collaborative groups. Information needs to be collected on how teachers use assessment results to adjust their instruction. During the data phase of the PLC, samples of teachers assessment data need to be collected and interviews should be conducted to determine how teachers adjusted their instruction based on the assessment data. Included in the evaluative criteria for this evaluation is the role of the literacy and math coaches within the PLC model. Interviewing these individuals, as well as teachers who work with them, can help determine their PLC roles. And lastly, information about the unique contextual factors at Canyon Lake can be collected by surveying the teachers to determine if the contextual factors at Canyon Lake were considered in the designing and implementing of the PLC at the building. The Causal Design Data Collection will help determine if the Canyon Lake PLC is making progress, as well as determine ways in which it needs to change to run more effectively. In this way, the evaluation will help ensure that progress is being made with the implementation of PLC, and this will be of interest to stakeholders such as the teachers, who want to be a part of an effective program, and the parents, who want to know that Wednesday afternoons are being spent productively. The results should be of interest to the principal, who will want to reflect on the PLC and make changes to improve the program for next year. This evaluation has limitations caused by myself, the evaluator, being an internal evaluator who is also a member of the PLC team as a teacher. The new principal proposed a schedule for the PLC that only involves looking at reading standards and not math or writing standards. I am aware of my own personal biases about this decision, because I feel that a balanced PLC would consider writing and math standards as well, though I understand that with the contextual factors at the school, this was probably necessary. It would also be

challenging to collect all the data for this evaluation myself, as I am a classroom teacher and will not have adequate time to interview everyone or conduct observations of teachers in classrooms. Because of the size of the PLC program at Canyon Lake, I propose Describe who your that every teacher should be included in the evaluation, as well as sample and sources would be if you were to the literacy and math coaches and the principal. There is no need to develop a sample group for this evaluation, because Sampling is conduct a survey. not necessary in all evaluations (Fitzpatrick, et al., 2010, p. 407). It is wise to collect information from the entire group when the size of the group is small. Identify the objectives A survey will be conducted to determine if the Canyon Lake PLC of the survey and how it addressed the contextual factors at Canyon Lake. The evaluation addresses the evaluation question is What actions are taken to account for the unique contextual factors at Canyon Lake? questions. Describe your choice of Canyon Lake is in a very different situation than other schools, item types in the survey because the school is starting the PLC late in the school year, after the first trimester has already passed. There is a new principal at the and why they will school who started after the school year began. Survey questions to effectively elicit the elicit responses about these specific contextual factors include: information desired from the respondents. * Did the new principal propose a reasonable timeline for the PLC considering the later starting date with the PLC at your school? * Did any aspects of the PLC seem rushed in order to accommodate for the loss of time at the beginning of the school year? * Were any steps in the PLC process omitted or shortened to the extent that they negatively effected the implementation of the PLC? * If you could have made changes to the PLC this year, what would you have done differently?