EVALUATION
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Each Challenge project was responsible for evaluating and documenting the ongoing results of its efforts. In each of the large urban sites, as well as within the Rural Challenge, a research team drawn from local universities developed a comprehensive evaluation plan in consultation with the local Challenge leadership. In addition, each site's local evaluation plan was reviewed and approved by a team at the Annenberg Institute.
- student outcomes (intellectual, social, ethical)
- instructional practices and school climate
- school networks
- relationships to school districts
- relationships of schools and partners to the surrounding community.
Guiding these plans was a set of shared expectations, developed jointly across the sites. Each site agreed to formulate the theories of action that infused its efforts and then to evaluate the degree to which it lived out these theories, as well as the degree to which these theories yielded their intended effects or produced other significant outcomes. Each site was expected to use a mix of evaluation strategies, with the additional expectation that each site's evaluation strategy would add in some lasting way to the capacity of individual schools to use data to make decisions. Finally, each site agreed to record and attribute changes that may have resulted from Challenge activities at five levels, including:
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The majority of Challenge sites have completed their final evaluation reports. Many are available online, from the Challenge office, or from the office of the independent evaluator.
In addition, the Annenberg Institute published several progress reports documenting the impacts and lessons learned across Challenge projects, as well as Research Perspectives on School Reform, a publication that explores the Challenge evaluation studies in several sites.
