UC Davis Evaluation Report
In 2016-17, Resourcing Excellence in Education (REEd) at UC Davis School of Education was contracted by Mills College to conduct an evaluation of the Mills Teacher Scholars Program. During this program evaluation year, the Mills Teacher Scholars Program was working with 16 school-based teams of teachers and principals throughout Northern California to model and facilitate the collaborative inquiry process around a local problem of practice directly related to student learning. Program developers were interested in conducting an evaluation to determine the extent to which the program is meeting its goals with building capacity for teacher-led communities of inquiry.
REEd proposed to evaluate the program by examining program inputs and implementation, which are crucial to identifying indicators of effectiveness of the model utilized in order to appropriately interpret expected outcomes. An implementation evaluation design examines key program components and activities to provide formative information that will guide program improvements. This type of descriptive study design also provides feedback about the services offered and helps determine whether the program is producing desired outputs and outcomes while also clarifying program processes, goals and objectives.
A secondary approach to our work with the Mills Teacher Scholar leadership team entailed development of an embedded evaluation protocol which the Mills leadership team could utilize to further explore and understand the impact of their work on the developmental trajectory of teacher shifts in practice.