SRI Joins With The Lastinger Center To Launch Three Year Field Trials
During the first four years of its existence, the Lastinger Center for Learning developed and refined a research-based approach to improving student achievement, child well-being, teaching, learning and leadership in under-resourced, high poverty schools and communities. From here, the Lastinger Center:
Developed a conceptual framework (model) that codifies our approach
Designed an operational blueprint for implementing the Lastinger model
Recruited a team of faculty members and school district practitioners
Secured a growing number of partners and sponsors
Created a network of partner schools and institutions
Having built the infrastructure of the organization, it now became time to evaluate our work. With a generous gift from the Lastinger Family Foundation, the Center engaged SRI-one of the world’s leading research, evaluation and development institutes-to work with College of Education faculty to develop a three year plan for field trials to rigorously evaluate and document the Lastinger School Improvement Model.
Operational Structures and Programmatic Components
The foundation of the Lastinger Center model is a cooperative, collaborative, inquiry-focused, research-based and practice-centered approach to improving educator practice, student achievement and school performance.
The Lastinger Center implements this approach in partnership with school-based practitioners using a differentiated staffing model that provides rich opportunities for teachers, principals, district support personnel and University of Florida faculty to share expertise and work collaboratively to raise student achievement.
The Lastinger Center implements this model in diverse settings and through a variety of mechanisms and activities including:
Principal Inquiry (Florida Principal Fellowship)
Teacher Inquiry (Florida Teacher Fellowship)
Developing Master Teachers (Job-Embedded Graduate Program)
Training Teachers to Lead Communities (Leadership Coaches Institute)
Assisting Leadership Teams to Improve Practice (School Leadership Institutes)
Improving Practice and Student Achievement (Teacher Practice Clinics)
Sharing Practitioner Learning (Inquiry Showcase)
Each of these operational structures and programmatic components are interconnected and focus on providing the supports, conditions, culture and resources that are necessary for teachers and principals to address their learning needs and those of their students.
What The Field Trials Will Accomplish
The three year field trials will document the implementation of the Lastinger model in various schools and districts including our Ready Schools in Miami. The study is designed to answer the following research questions:
- Have student outcomes improved?
- Have teaching practices changed?
- To what extent has the district and school engaged the broader community in providing for child well-being?
- To what extent do schools reflect a professional learning community? How do professional learning communities emerge over time?
- To what extent do district practices and policies support or impede the development and implementation of school-based reforms?
- To what extent are schools engaged with the Lastinger Center? How does participation change over time?
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What are the essential elements of the Lastinger school improvement model, and which of them contribute significantly to changes in the professional learning community, teacher practice and student learning?
