Enhancing Ninth-Grade Academies Using Collaborative, Design-Based Research

• In Event: Poster Session 15
  In Poster Session: Poster Fair B: Data Use and Research in the Schools

Abstract

A project with a large, urban school system was initiated in 2011 to improve the operation and impact of Ninth Grade Academies (NGAs) in seven district high schools. NGAs are designed to support students’ transition into high school by providing a self-contained learning community for freshmen with its own administrators, space, faculty, and teacher teams. The project uses a collaborative, design-based research approach (DBR) to develop and study enhancements to NGAs in three areas—data use, teacher leadership, and community partnerships. It also investigates the adaptation and feasibility of DBR in a large, urban school system with non-local research partners. Findings from the first two years of the study describe project resources, structures, processes, challenges, and impact on student outcomes.

Authors

• Nettie E. Legters, Johns Hopkins University

• Leigh Parise, MDRC