Studies
Results of evaluations of the Teachers Institute demonstrate that such collaborative programs can assist schools in specific ways. Studies have shown that Institute participation has increased teachers’ preparation in their disciplines, raised their morale, heightened their expectations for their students, encouraged them to remain in teaching in New Haven, and has, in turn, enhanced student performance. Curriculum units Fellows have developed are used extensively in school courses.
Fellow Questionnaire Results, 1992-2019: Overview
From 1992-2019, 544 different New Haven teachers participated at least once. All Fellows completed a questionnaire each time they participated. A longitudinal analysis of questionnaire data showed a notable consistency over time in the experiences of program participants and the outcomes they report. It concludes that teacher leaders ensure that the program meets teachers’ needs; collegiality has consistently enriched teachers’ experiences; and curriculum units written in Institute seminars ensure that teachers’ learning reaches their students.
A Progress Report on Surveys Administered to New Haven Teachers, 1982-1990
In the preface to “A Progress Report on Surveys Administered to New Haven Teachers, 1982-1990,” Gita Z. Wilder of the Educational Testing Service summarizes highlights of the decade-long study of results of the Institute’s program for teachers who had participated as Fellows, and for those who had not. She concludes, “What is most notable about the findings... is their consistency.... Such consistency of responses is manifest not only among each year’s Fellows, but among Fellows across years.”
Teachers Institute Enhances Student Engagement, 2018
Drawing on data from several sources between 1992 and 2017, the report concludes that Institute Fellows “consistently report high levels of student engagement when they teach the curriculum unit they developed in their Institute seminar.”
Study of Teachers Institute Curriculum Units, 2014-2015
The study of curriculum units developed in 2014 and 2015 in Teachers Institute seminars in New Haven and elsewhere – and in the Yale National Initiative – found that most curriculum units are clearly written, accurate, and usable by another teacher. “In New Haven, nearly all teachers who responded to an online survey were satisfied with the units they had used…Most teachers reported that, compared with commercial curriculum units they have used, Institute units elicit the same or greater student attention, interest, and motivation and lead to the same or higher mastery.”