The Relationship between Teacher Implementation of America's Choice and Student Learning in Plainfield, New Jersey.

This report explores the relationship between teachers' implementation of different aspects of the America's Choice program and the learning gains of their students. It draws on data from Plainfield, New Jersey, where teachers' survey responses about America's Choice schools were linked to the test gains of the students who were taught by those teachers. Researchers then linked individual survey responses to the district's student achievement databases. America's Choice is a K-12 comprehensive school-reform model that focuses on raising academic achievement by providing a rigorous standards-based curriculum. The report indicates that the students of teachers who deeply implemented the America's Choice model, particularly the writers workshop component of the design, learned more than did the students of teachers who had lower levels of implementation. Three dimensions of the implementing of the program--overall implementation, and preparation to teach writers and readers workshop--were statistically associated with above-average gains in student learning. The paper offers details on the data, measures, and methods used in the study and provides predictors of teachers' overall implementation of the program. It was found that the more prepared the teacher, the larger the learning gains for their students. (RJM)