The Impact of America's Choice on Writing Performance in Georgia: First-Year Results

This study investigates the impact of America's Choice on student writing performance in Georgia. The analyses in this study focus on the change that occurred during the first year of implementation, the 2001-2002 school year. Two research questions guided these analyses: (1) What effect did Georgia's Choice have on the writing scores from the state assessment? and (2) To what extent is the effect of Georgia's Choice related to implementation of specific components of the design? The data sources for this study were individual-level student test scores on the Georgia writing assessments, school context measures (e.g., poverty rate, ethnic composition, etc.), and implementation data collected via a survey of cluster leaders, school principals, and the school leadership teams. This report is organized into six sections. In the next section, some background on Georgia's Choice and the rollout of the design during the first year is presented. Then it describes the data sources and sample. Next, it describes the methods, and then it presents the results of the analyses. Finally, it offers some interpretations of the results and explores the implications of these results for Georgia schools, America's Choice, and for comprehensive school reform in general. Appended are: (1) Scales of Implementation; (2) Results from Statistical Models of Impact; and (3) Results from Statistical Models Linking Implementation Measures and Impact. (Contains 6 tables and 3 footnotes.)