Rapid Cycle Evaluations of the Dynamic Learning Project in 3 Districts. Research Brief

Empirical Education conducted rapid-cycle evaluations (RCEs) in three districts in the southcentral and southeastern United States. Each study evaluated the impact of the Dynamic Learning Project (DLP) coaching on teachers' and students' impactful use of technology and student achievement. The research questions, samples, and analytic methods varied between districts, due to the availability of data. They found strong evidence of positive impacts of DLP coaching on teacher and student technology usage, as measured by Hapara Analytics measurement of Google Suite usage, in two districts where this data was available. These findings were particularly evident, and consistent in their increased frequency and duration, for metrics that captured digital interactions between students and teachers. In all three districts studied, they found evidence of positive impacts of DLP coaching on student achievement in math and ELA. These findings, across three districts in three states with different outcome measures and varying grade levels, demonstrate the promise of the DLP coaching model. They also see little evidence of differential impacts of DLP coaching for varying student subgroups. This finding demonstrates promising evidence that DLP coaching equitably impacts students across, gender, race, ELL status, and economically disadvantaged status. The impact of DLP coaching on both the short-term and long-term outcomes hypothesized in the program logic model, as well as evidence that the associations between mediating teacher and student edtech outcomes and longer-term student learning outcomes are positive and significant. These findings are consistent with the goals of the DLP project. However, given the small sample sizes and other limitations of the data collection, the authors caution that many results were inconclusive and warrant further investigation.