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The Evaluation Group

Conducting comprehensive evaluation and research on relevant topics for schools today

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has called upon the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University to evaluate the effectiveness of TEA -funded grants and projects intended to help reduce the dropout rate in Texas public schools. Dropout rates are one of the biggest concerns of Texas' public schools, and TEA has awarded funds to 129 projects as part of the "Texas High School Completion and Success Grant Program" along with 13 "Texas Grants to Reduce Academic Dropouts" in an attempt to address this concern.

Led by principal investigators Dr. Jane Close Conoley, Dean of the College of Education and Human Development, and Dr. Dennie L. Smith, Head of the Teaching, Learning, and Culture Department, The Evaluation Group (TEG) was designed to conduct comprehensive evaluation and research on relevant topics for schools today. Dr. Lisa O’Dell serves as Interim Director of the group, while Dr. Karin Sparks serves as Assistant Research Scientist. The Project Coordinator is Joan Davison, and Qi Chen and Jonathon Doll are graduate assistants to the project.

The two Texas Education Agency (TEA) Grant-funded Projects that make this research possible are the Texas Grants to Reduce Academic Dropout and the Texas High School Completion and Success Grant:

Texas Grants to Reduce Academic Dropouts

The purpose of the Texas Grants to Reduce Academic Dropouts Grant Program is to provide support for new programs or enhance successful activities such as early intervention programs; reduction in student-to-counselor ratios; credit recovery opportunities; flexible scheduling and work/study programs; and after-school, evening or summer learning opportunities. Funding is targeted to projects that demonstrate the greatest potential to increase graduation rates among economically disadvantaged students.

Texas High School Completion and Success (THSCS)

The purpose of the Texas High School Completion and Success (THSCS) Grant Program is to establish comprehensive high school completion and success initiatives. The THSCS grant program targets Low-Performing and under performing high schools through student-focused competitive intervention grants that provide direct and indirect (support) services to students in grades 9-12.

The Evaluation Group trains classroom observers through the High School Classroom Observation Measure (HSCOM) to equip them with skills to use on their site visit(s). With their results, TEG can recognize the strengths and recommend areas for improvement in schools with TEA grants. The Evaluation Group will first examine the schools participating in the TEA grant programs to determine whether they fully implemented the program's strategies and activities. In addition, they will determine the impact the awarded grants had on the schools and their students and then identify the "best practices" used in the programs. The researchers will also study student achievement at the school level and even track students receiving specific services from grant funds.

"Our research, and the way it is conducted, is similar to an audit," said Dr. Smith. "Our evaluations are going to hold schools accountable to what they said they were going to do [with the TEA -awarded grants]." Dr. Smith noted that procedures to identify school dropouts vary greatly. For example, some estimate that Texas is experiencing a 12 percent dropout rate, while others indicate a dropout rate as high as 30-40 percent.

Dr. Smith also added that there are also reports showing the United States as a whole is experiencing a 15 percent disconnected student rate, and Texas is experiencing a 20 percent disconnected student rate. Disconnected students are those who do not have meaningful relationships with teachers or administrators in their public high schools, Smith explained. "Good schools have good leaders; and, good leaders keep good teachers who help students achieve," Smith said. This raises the question of what sort of things good schools and good leaders are doing to be successful. Dr. Conoley said that as The Evaluation Group identifies schools successfully using the TEA grants, it will share those best practices with other schools in the program and throughout the nation with the hope of decreasing student dropout rates. "The College of Education and Human Development is a land grant college program. We are committed to the success of public schools throughout Texas. This work allows us to learn from the best practices across the State; assist schools in learning from their own work; and disseminate successful strategies across Texas," said Dr. Conoley. She added that the results of this research could have an impact on dropout rates in other states once these best practices become known.

For more information about The Evaluation Group or the High School Classroom Observation Measure, please visit http://teg.tamu.edu or call 979-845-8363.