Describe: I met with Title 1 supervisor December 8 for a preliminary discussion about what they would like to find out from their Summer Mailbox Books (SMB) program data. They would like to look at the DRA scores of students who participated in the SMB program to see if the students showed growth, and possibly to compare the scores of participants with those of students who did not participate in SMB.
Reflect: I was very upfront in describing what I thought I was qualified to do and not qualified to do in terms of statistical analysis. I mentioned that I am technically competent in terms of showing correlation but not causation. The Title 1 supervisor (Erin) and I discussed how it would make sense to look at the data to best show students’ growth. She mentioned that she would like to have the data published as part of a larger project.
Connect: This data project is listed under standard 5.1 in my internship plan because it relates to equity for all students. The SMB program distributes books to selected students from Title 1 schools over the summer, and as such is intended to prevent summer slide among Economically Disadvantaged students. However, as I worked on the draft of the data project, I found myself relating it to standard 4.3, which relates to involving families, thinking about their needs and getting families involved in processes related to school. I have to connect it to the root cause analysis, and wonder if providing access to books is making the change that the Title 1 office is hoping it will make. I’m really glad I’ll be participating in the Title 1 Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) meetings, because I believe that will help me get a better feel for the actual needs of the students and their families. Right now I feel as if I’m operating on assumptions.
The attached artifact is the preliminary run of the SMB student growth I created using only data from Campbell Elementary School.