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Validating “The Three Domains Framework:” Administrators and teachers study educational disadvantage E. Alana James, Ed.D. The Centre for Research Strategies Jones International University

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Three Purposes <ul><li>To introduce “ The Three Domains Framework” a tool that may be of interest to educators with high % of disadvantage in their schools. </li></ul><ul><li>To tell the story of a group of educators in the State of Colorado, USA who participated in a year long study about educational disadvantage </li></ul><ul><li>To discuss the first results towards validating this framework using Participatory Action Research (PAR) </li></ul>

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Context of Homeless and Highly Mobile (H&HM) Students in the U.S. <ul><li>Homeless children may periodically live out of their parents car or sleep on friend’s couches – there are approximately 1.5 million homeless children in the United States. </li></ul><ul><li>Highly mobile (transient) children attend 2 or more schools each school year and have been shown to be at high risk for dropping out (leaving early). </li></ul><ul><li>A recent study of homeless street youth showed that some of them had attended as many as 19 schools during their childhood. </li></ul>

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Discussion <ul><li>Turn to your neighbor and discuss the context of educational disadvantage that concerns or interests you the most. 7 minutes </li></ul>

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The participants

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<ul><li>Seventeen educators – 9 administrators </li></ul><ul><li>1 homeless shelter (ages 14-18) </li></ul><ul><li>1 charter high school (separate from school district but attached to it with special focus), </li></ul><ul><li>2 middle schools (11-13) </li></ul><ul><li>1 multi level school (ages 4-18) </li></ul><ul><li>4 elementary schools (ages 4-10) </li></ul>Different school environments

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Different educational contexts <ul><li>Schools that were in: rural (1) , small towns (3), suburban areas (3), urban (3) </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Rural = 120 students in 13 grades - population less than 1,000 </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Small town = 75,000 people or less </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Urban population = 1.5 - 3 million </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Suburban = industrial or residential community clustered next to urban population </li></ul></ul></ul>

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Project outline <ul><li>Participants conducted their own PAR study in their own school and developed educational practices to aid H&HM students. </li></ul><ul><li>They met as a participatory group bimonthly on a Saturday </li></ul><ul><li>They received a stipend when they finished their school year long project ($3,000) </li></ul><ul><li>Their results were published on the web by the state education agency & CRS </li></ul>

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PAR = participatory action research

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The Three Domains Framework <ul><li>Developed during the study </li></ul><ul><li>Based on research about educational disadvantage </li></ul><ul><li>3 Domains </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Access to educational services </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Welcoming school culture - inclusive </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Flexible instructional strategies </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Over three timeframes: before, enrollment and ongoing </li></ul>

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Discussion <ul><li>Look over “The Three Domains Framework” and discuss it with your neighbors. 15 minutes. </li></ul><ul><li>Group discussion – 10 minutes </li></ul>

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The question of the validity of this framework was only a small portion of a much larger study <ul><li>One of four questions </li></ul><ul><li>Use of the framework (or not) was completely voluntary on the part of the participants </li></ul><ul><li>Range of use could be placed on a continuum from “lip service” to central in the design of their PAR study </li></ul>

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Qualitative analysis <ul><li>Data collected throughout the school year from: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Monthly reflective memos </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>In depth interviews – pre and post </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Focus groups, administrators * and teachers </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Final reports </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Email correspondence </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Analyzed using Atlas/ti. </li></ul>

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Open and Selective Coding <ul><li>Reference to any one of the domains </li></ul><ul><li>Examples of use </li></ul><ul><li>Examples of non use </li></ul>

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What did data show? <ul><li>100% said it was useful for conversation with others. </li></ul><ul><li>The whole idea of &quot;mobile&quot; is so vague that you have to contain it somehow. Otherwise the problem is almost too overwhelming, if you look at the problem piece by piece, it becomes more manageable. </li></ul>

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Further Results <ul><li>30% mentioned the three domains were useful to direct their research projects </li></ul><ul><li>It helped me get my arms around what I doing , and what areas I wanted to focus on . The broader categories helped me think about the problem differently , I can take that big picture and break it down into workable pieces, then I can concentrate on one at a time . It helps me think about how I can use all of that research to fit within the school. </li></ul>

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The majority (65%) said they used it in their studies <ul><li>It was very nice to see that this whole idea of welcoming school culture and flexible instruction came out of my study. Lots of questions that I hadn't considered before, develop while using this model and I was able to hone in on them. I think that's the key, instead of seeing things so widely, you can target something specific . </li></ul>

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Access to educational services <ul><li>Principal and teacher uncovered numbers of and services used by mobile children. </li></ul><ul><li>Principal tested correlation between services and attendance. </li></ul><ul><li>Principal develops case studies of her most mobile students and the services they access </li></ul><ul><li>Homeless shelter designed a charter school based on data from 3 domains survey. </li></ul><ul><li>Set up new systems </li></ul>

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New Systems for Access <ul><ul><li>We have a system now, when a family goes to the shelter the first thing the shelter worker does is call my secretary. This works for all concerned. </li></ul></ul>

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Welcoming School Culture <ul><li>Included homeless students in school activities. </li></ul><ul><li>Started “The lunch bunch.” </li></ul><ul><li>Opened a welcoming center. </li></ul><ul><li>Interviewed every parent who enrolled their children mid year. The welcoming school environment is what precipitated the use of the interview process , parents coming in were surprised that someone was interested enough in them to ask these questions , which created some follow-up situations, which got us comments from families like, no one has ever shown this much interest in us. </li></ul>

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Flexible Instructional Strategies <ul><li>Flexible instructional strategies are something that everybody strives for all kids, you have to differentiate, it is not an easy thing to do. </li></ul><ul><li>Teacher changed poetry in her reading curriculum to include poems about homelessness. Motivation to memorize the poems soared. </li></ul><ul><li>At the end of the school year her homeless students had excelled in this curricula four times the expected growth. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>The Three Domains Framework has been initially validated as useful </li></ul><ul><li>It should be further tested by educators </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Adding new components </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Testing its significance in a variety of geographic/cultural setting </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Addressing different issues of disadvantaged </li></ul></ul>Conclusion/Recommendation

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<ul><li>The Three Domains Framework has become the way that I talk about the services that we need to create, and the services that are successful. I do that in meetings and when I give talks, it's how I frame the conversation of what needs to be included in the programs. </li></ul>For homeless service providers

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Epilogue <ul><li>During the 2005-2006 school year 40 participants from four states (Colorado, Texas, Arkansas and Virginia) are participating in a similar study using web-based PAR methodology. </li></ul>

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More information : <ul><li>www.crsllc.org /resources/html = the pdf for the book done by the participants in the first study </li></ul><ul><li>www.wbpd.org is the URL for the new project: </li></ul><ul><li>Username = wbpd & Password = guest </li></ul><ul><li>alanajames@earthlink.net </li></ul>