This page presents four different formats describing an investigation into possible relationships between a place-based education project called CO-SEED and standardized test scores in Gorham, New Hampshire.
1) Immediately below is the Executive Summary of the full report.
2) Downloadable from the bottom of this page is the full report.
3) Downloadable from the bottom of this page is also a one page "Eval Brief" which highlights key findings.
4) Also downloadable from the bottom of this page is a PowerPoint presentation on this topic that was presented at the New England Psychological Association conference.
Executive Summary
This report presents a quantitative investigation into the relationship between a place-based education program and student academic achievement in Gorham School District in Gorham, New Hampshire. Antioch New England Institute’s Community-based School Environmental Education (CO-SEED) Project exposes students to hands-on, real-world learning experiences and strives to simultaneously enhance academic achievement, strengthen community vitality, promote appreciation for the natural world, and increase citizenship among students. This study describes one aspect of an evaluation of the CO-SEED program in Gorham, comparing longitudinal trends in standardized test performance for the District versus the State.
The CO-SEED program was introduced in Gorham in the spring of 1998, and the program was evaluated each of the three years of CO-SEED’s tenure at this site. During follow up evaluation in 2004, evidence emerged suggesting that there may have been notable improvements in standardized test scores during CO-SEED’s tenure at Gorham. This investigation set out to explore that possibility more fully.
To compare student academic achievement before and after the introduction of CO-SEED, students were grouped into eight sequential cohorts spanning academic years 1993-1994 through 2003-2004. Test scores from the New Hampshire Educational Improvement and Assessment Program (NHEIAP) were obtained and used for the analysis, including the proportion of students scoring at each of four proficiency levels , as well as Gorham’s test score rank in the State.
The study was conducted by external evaluators from PEER Associates, Inc.
Results
Local Versus State Trends in Proficiency Categories
In order to align with federal measures for adequate yearly progress, the Basic, Proficient, and Advanced levels were combined into one category labeled “Passing” for this analysis. An extremely strong pattern of change emerged on this measure when comparing standardized assessments for Grades 3 and 6. At the State level, each cohort generates more students in the Novice proficiency category as they progress from Grades 3 to 6, and correspondingly fewer in the Passing category. In Gorham, comparable cohorts show fewer students in the Novice category and more in the Passing category as they progress from Grades 3 to 6. This pattern was present from Cohort 1, before the introduction of CO-SEED, and continued through Cohort 8. Figure 1 shows an example of the typical pattern of change in the percent of students at each
proficiency level for Gorham and State cohorts between Grades 3 and 6.
Figure 1. Typical pattern of change in the percent of students at each proficiency level
for Gorham and State cohorts between Grades 3 and 6.
Changes in Gorham State Rank from Grade 3 to Grade 6
A noticeable pattern of improvement in state rank between Grades 3 and 6 was seen in the four cohorts for which state rank data were available (Cohorts 4-7), for years 1997-98 through 2003-04. Each cohort made a large leap in state rank in both Language Arts and Math, as seen in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Change in Gorham state rank from Grade 3 to Grade 6
Data from the pre-CO-SEED academic year (1997-1998) showed that the pattern of dramatic increase in state rank from Grade 3 to Grade 6 existed prior to the introduction of CO-SEED, suggesting that the trend may not be CO-SEED specific.
Conclusions & Implications for Practice
These data demonstrate remarkably consistent and impressive trends in Gorham students’ achievement, using State norms as a benchmark, between Grades 3 and 6. While the typical pattern across the State is for students to migrate from Passing proficiency categories into the Novice category, Gorham students are moving in the opposite direction, which is obviously more favorable.
Although interviews with administrators, educators, and students attest to an important role for CO-SEED in Gorham’s achievement, the data presented here reveal that this trend pre-dated the introduction of CO-SEED, and thus must be at least in part due to some pre-existing attributes of this school system. This study revealed some important considerations for future research on the relationship between CO-SEED and academic achievement.
· Document successful educator practice.
Gorham teachers between Grade 3 and 6 may be particularly adept at working with students in the content areas measured by the standardized NHEIAP tests, resulting in higher test scores in Grade 6 than Grade 3. Further investigation of the particular traits or teaching styles these teachers possess is warranted, to further capitalize on their success at preparing students for such measures of achievement. Such an investigation should explicitly explore ways in which CO-SEED supported or hindered such practices. It is possible that highly competent teachers between Grade 3 and 6 in Gorham were more prepared or primed to be receptive to a program such as CO-SEED. CO-SEED may have capitalized on this resource, helping to make it a successful and effective form of teaching in Gorham.
· Explore pre-existing achievement patterns as a way to gauge expectations.
If the remarkable increases in achievement from Grade 3 to 6 are primarily attributable to factors that pre-existed CO-SEED, then that means that there was almost no room for CO-SEED to improve upon existing achievement patterns. CO-SEED could, however, have distracted teachers from test preparation or had an otherwise deleterious effect, but it did not. This alone is evidence for an important type of success for this nontraditional, highly experiential, and innovative curriculum.
· Consider multiple, context-specific measures of success.
The real value of CO-SEED may not show up in standardized test scores, especially in an already high-performing environment such as Gorham. However, it does remain possible that in an underperforming but ‘ready’ context, CO-SEED may have more visible impact on student achievement. The value that CO-SEED brings to a school site may be sequentially incremental, differing based on the resources and readiness of school site and culture.
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