Research and Evaluation

Many important health promotion campaigns are not as effective as they could be because health professionals and educators are unfamiliar with the communications strategies that will help them get their message out to their intended audiences, according to health communications experts at EDC.

Since 1997, EDC has been working to improve literacy instruction in Guinea as part of a comprehensive school reform program known as the Fundamental Quality and Equity Levels (FQEL) Project, funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

New educational methods inevitably set off debates, and “inquiry science instruction” provides a classic case. Over the past two decades, proponents of inquiry science, sometimes referred to as “hands-on science,” laud it as an engaging and interactive teaching method. Critics lambaste it as an absence of instruction, unconcerned about scientific facts or correct answers.

When students who will be entering the New Bedford Global Learning Charter School this fall sat down earlier this summer to have their literary skills assessed, they were providing information that will help shape curriculum and teachers’ professional development at this new school set to open its doors in September.

Some researchers approach schools with a certain level of arrogance: ‘We know what’s right, and we think we’ll make your lives better if only you’ll let us.’ It’s well intentioned but it’s very misguided. We have a different mindset at EDC; we hold firm to the notion that our collaborations need to be done in partnership and that our work is not about importing knowledge into a district.

EDC today released an independent evaluation of IBM’s Reinventing Education Program which indicates that investments in educational technology are yielding gains in student performance, teaching quality, and school management. The three-year study was conducted by EDC’s Center for Children and Technology (CCT) based in New York City.

A coalition of educators committed to supporting excellence in teaching, NBPTS has established nationwide teaching standards at all levels of preK-12 education. In 1994, NBPTS contracted with the Center for Children and Families (CC&F) at EDC to design, field-test, and implement an assessment process for early childhood teachers.