HUDSON RIVER CHHOP TEACHER CENTER AT BOCES

PREVIEW  (final report to be submitted)

The Wilson Reading Program has been a part of our staff development program since 1995.  It’s impact in changing teacher practice and increasing student reading levels has always been implied, but never really evaluated by our center. The Policy Board decided to look for some ways to assess student impact, and Wilson seemed to lend itself to that.  Therefore, I chose to participate in designing and implementing an evaluation of the program, in order to find the elusive student impact and the change in teacher practice that we all believe is at the basis of our staff development.

 In working with West Ed we agreed that a survey and then follow up telephone interview might be a good plan.  The survey asked such questions as “what specific techniques have been most helpful with your students” as well as “explain what you do differently now that you did not do before Wilson training.”

We also asked teachers to evaluate improvement in student performance for a number of skills, and the greatest challenges and benefits.

Since the survey was sent in mid May with a quick turn around time, to all those who had completed at least Level I of the program, I had no idea if we would get any replies.  However, I sent it out on luminescent pink paper with the most user friendly print I could find and offered a Wilson canvas bag as a Thank you for participating in the survey. We also asked if they would be willing to participate in a telephone survey.   We received about 50% return and I felt that it was an excellent showing.  Many said they would be part of the telephone survey. 

Although we have not finished fully analyzing the data, the results do appear interesting.  Teachers have changed things they are doing and feel that they have made a big difference in the lives of their students through the use of this program. They talk about specific techniques and strategies that help them as teachers as well as their students. In fact one teacher said, “I am able to teach specific skills with a lot more background knowledge.  The sequential teaching has built in review and repetition.  I can tell the students,” You can spell that word; it’s a Wilson word.” They then use my words to bring the skill to be able to spell.  “It’s all in one package.”  Another commented regarding the decoding of words: The program “offers hands on concrete ways to figure it (the word) out, with a spiral of skills.”

We are continuing to examine the data and will have results in the fall for both the survey and the phone interviews.