THE CENTER FOR RESEARCH
ON EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY
Mark Berends, Director
Catholic School Effectiveness Project
With funding from the Walton Family Foundation, the University of Notre Dame is initiating a project to collect and analyze student achievement data from Catholic schools across the country. The purpose of this research is to obtain longitudinal student test score and other outcome data from Catholic schools in nine cities across the United States. The Notre Dame research team will use the data to study how students, schools, and communities contribute to student learning in Catholic schools and to help schools guide their improvement efforts.
What Makes Schools Work Project
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the What Makes Schools Work project (http://wmsw.org/) is a study of practices and policies that promote success in schools, classrooms, and student performance. Its purpose is not to evaluate schools but to shed light on how schools, instruction, and student achievement are related. During the 2007-2008 schools year, researchers surveyed principals and teachers in about 250 schools (including traditional public, charter, magnet, and private schools), collecting data about what they are doing to help students learn and linking those activities to student achievement in mathematics and reading. During the 2008-2009 school year, researchers administered a survey in about 150 schools, asking math teachers (grades 2-8) about what and how they teach. The survey is unique because it benefits not only research but the classroom. As soon as teachers submitted their completed surveys, they received reports showing their results and how they align with state standards and assessments. What Makes Schools Work is a project of National Center on School Choice (www.vanderbilt.edu/schoolchoice/), which involves the University of Notre Dame, Vanderbilt University, the Northwest Evaluation Association, the Wisconsin Center on Education Research, and Mountain Measurement.
Chicago School Study
With support from the U.S. Department of Education, faculty and graduate students in CREO are analyzing data from the Chicago School Study. This research presents the first major opportunity to identify school and classroom effects on student learning in Catholic and public schools using data specifically collected for this purpose. Ongoing analyses of these data are answering critical questions about the impact of school and classroom characteristics on student cognitive, social, and moral development. More generally, the research examines issues related to school reform efforts, school choice, and desegregation for students who differ by race, ethnicity, and income.
Research on Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE)
CREO supports the efforts of the ACE staff in training teachers to work in underprivileged Catholic schools. CREO faculty and graduate students are beginning to conduct research on the teacher education program, the experience of beginning ACE teachers in the classroom and the effectiveness of their training, the careers of ACE teachers after they have completed their service in ACE, and other issues of importance to the ACE program.
Facilities
CREO is located in the west wing of Flanner Hall's 10th floor and has recently expanded into a nearby wing. An on-site ibrary with Sociology of Education research materials is available for CREO faculty and students. In 2007, a restricted data room was established at the Center so that CREO faculty and students can access restricted files from Government sponsored national surveys of schools.
Faculty
CREO continues to build an outstanding research faculty to advance its mission. Director Mark Berends and Professors Maureen Hallinan, Bill Carbonaro, and Sean Kelly, assisted by Associate Professional Specialist Warren Kubitschek, conduct systematic, theoretically grounded empirical research on effective practices and policies in Catholic and public schools. CREO graduate students actively collaborate with faculty on these research projects. Several CREO projects focus on inequality in achievement and attainment outcomes.
Professor Berends and his students are working on several projects that are part of the National Center on School Choice, which he directs (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/school choice/). The "What Makes Schools Work?" project (http://www.wmsw.org) is looking for a national sample of charter, magnet, private and traditional public schools and analyzing student achievement gains in relation to each school's curriculum, instruction, and organizational conditions. Student achievement data comes from the Northwest Association's Growth Research Database, and school data comes from a combination of principal and teacher surveys. This data allows for multi-level modeling of student achievement growth nested within classrooms nested within schools. In addition Professor Berends is examining the context of choice in Indianapolis. Specifically, this project examines the policy context of charter school reform; at student attitudes, learning, and behavior; and at parent involvement, preferences, and satisfaction in these schools. Using a variety of quasi-experimental methods, they are conducting longitudinal analyses of student achievement to estimate effects of charters vis-a-vis traditional public schools. The data collection methods not only shed light on achievement effects of schools and classrooms, but also provide valuable feedback to the schools participating in the study.
Professor Hallinan and CREO students are studying the effects of school and class racial composition on school community, analyzing factors that lead eighth grade students in Catholic elementary schools to choose a Catholic or public high school, and examining the effects of holding a job during high school on academic achievement and academic expectations.
Professor Carbonaro and graduate students are analyzing data on course taking and achievement among Catholic, public, and private non-Catholic high schools and also are examining how interracial friendships affect students' achievement and attainment outcomes. Professor Carbonaro also is initiating a new longitudinal study that will include collecting data on high school students' social networks, drop outs, and the transition into post-secondary schooling.
Professor Kelly and his students are analyzing the effects of vocational course taking on students' social psychological adjustment to school, achievement, and educational attainment. In addition, they are documenting the effects of vocational education offerings, which have decreased in recent years in response to the accountability movement and rising academic course taking requirements.
In addition to his work with Professor Hallinan on the Chicago School Study, Warren Kubitschek has established a restricted data room at CREO. He also is developing models and methods for examining student achievement.
As the faculty grows, an increasing number of research studies will be based in CREO.
