Body
An evaluation of the second year of Pennsylvania’s Classrooms for the Future (CFF) is valuable both for its findings on a model program and its methodology. Evaluators used several assessments of 21st century skills to measure impact of a new approach to school, and the report clearly defines these tools and methodologies.
The CFF initiative is designed to transform the state’s high schools, making them more engaging and more responsive to the economic challenges presented by globalization. It is also a reform initiative designed to enhance teaching and learning and to promote access to and the effective use of technology. The eventual desire is for a laptop computer on every student desk in every public high school classroom in which the four core subjects are taught, but the technology infusion also includes white boards, digital cameras, video cameras, software and other high-tech enhancements to creativity and investigation.
Professional development is also central. There are three pillars to the professional development offered by the CFF program:
- Participation in a minimum of two days of real time training
- Participation in a minimum of 30 hours of additional professional development on PDE-mandated content through a combination of offline and online course work training per year
- Use this professional development experience to integrate the technology appropriately by adopting practices that regularly integrate technology with teaching and learning).
Instructional Technology Coaches involved in CFF are hired to work with classroom teachers as they integrate instructional technology into their classrooms. In these early stages, the evaluation found that tech support needs to take over more of their work so that they can focus on integration rather than tech glitches.
The year-two evaluation published in September, 2008, cautions that it is early in the program to be drawing conclusions about transformative change. However, it does find that:
The combination of increased access to technologies and professional development designed to help teachers move from didactic teaching methods to active, learner-centered practices is changing how teachers teach and how students learn.
Furthermore, the report concludes that there is a widespread understanding “that CFF is about new approaches to instruction and learning (not technology).”
The report uses multiple measures to assess:
- Impact on Teaching Practice
- Impact on Student Activity
- Impact on Teacher Attitudes
- Impact on Student Attitudes
It also looks at Factors that may be enhancing or limiting program impact, and it takes a preliminary look at 21st skill development. The latter measures oral presentation skills, knowledge acquisition skills, group problem solving, creativity and formal reasoning skills.
