IMPACT has proven to:

• Increase Teacher Retention
• Significantly Increase Student Achievement Results in Math and Reading
• Increase Technology Integration
• Increase Student Centered Instruction

  Complete Results

Teacher Retention
Initially we wondered if working in a technology rich, professionally and intellectually stimulating environment would leave IMPACT teachers less likely to leave the profession than their colleagues in comparable schools. Analyses of the available data showed that classroom teachers and administrators were more likely to be retained at their school than classroom teachers and administrators in comparison schools.  When the data were examined more closely, it was clear that the most experienced teachers (those with 11-15 or more years in the profession) and new teachers (0-3 years experience) were more likely to be retained at IMPACT schools. This is an important finding, as master teachers are often the most valuable to schools. 

Teacher Results - Our goal was to examine several different factors among teachers that might have been influenced by the IMPACT intervention. These included technology skills, the activities teachers employ, attitudes toward technology, teachers’ Stages of Concern, and classroom equipment usage.

• Attitudes Toward Computers and Instructional Technology - Attitudes were measured via a complex instrument that assessed eleven different types of attitudes. Some of the more important findings were that, over the three years, IMPACT teachers consistently saw IT as more useful, and had more positive attitudes toward the usefulness of email, the World Wide Web, multimedia in the classroom, and instructional technology for teachers than the comparison teachers. Ironically, comparison school teachers were more likely to view student interaction with computers more positively.

• Activities of Instruction - Requesting teachers to look at samples of their lesson plans, we asked teachers to report how often they engaged in various activities in the classroom. The goal was to see whether teachers became more student-centered, and progressive (using active learning strategies, e.g.). Because of difficulties with analysis of these data in HLM, these data were looked at two different ways: how teachers who were part of the project for all three years changed, and how any teacher in the project changed in their first year, regardless of when they joined the schools.

• During the three years of the project, comparison school teachers became significantly less teacher-centered. More importantly, IMPACT teachers became significantly more constructivist, and showed a substantial increase in technology utilization, relative to their comparison-school colleagues. When only the first year of experience in the project was looked at, the only effect was that IMPACT teachers showed increased technology utilization relative to comparison school teachers.

Classroom Equipment Usage - A survey of classroom equipment usage indicated that there were few differences in classroom technology use for IMPACT and comparison teachers prior to the IMPACT intervention, but that by 2006 IMPACT teachers reported using most classroom technologies more frequently than comparison school teachers.

Administrator Results - Administrators were assessed in several different ways. We examined administrators’ technology attitudes, skills, and usage as well as their leadership styles. 

• Technology Attitudes, Skills, and Usage - Results for the ISTE Profile for Administrators revealed significant differences across the IMPACT and comparison groups, indicating that IMPACT administrators changed more over time than their comparison counterparts in terms of their technology attitudes, skills, and usage.

• Leadership Profile - The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) was used to assess administrators’ leadership styles. Due to turnover and low response rates among comparison schools, it was not possible to perform significance testing on the differences between IMPACT and comparison principals. However, the data indicate that all IMPACT principals who were present for all three years of the grant were rated more highly in Year Three than in Year One on all 5 constructs of the LPI. These principals grew most in “Challenging the Process” and “Inspiring a Shared Vision.” At the same time, in Year Three, media coordinators and technology facilitators were generally rated more highly as leaders than principals, indicating that teachers at IMPACT schools value these individuals as part of the school’s leadership team.

Student Results - A number of different variables were measured at the student level, including achievement in math, reading, and writing, as well as level of technology skill.

• Math Achievement Looking at achievement levels (I – IV) revealed that IMPACT students tended to show more improvement than their comparison counterparts. Looking at the change in achievement level from Year 00 to Year 02, we see that IMPACT students are 25% less likely to drop achievement levels and are 37% more likely to increase achievement levels. This pattern was similar for Year 02-03, but was not significant.

• Reading Achievement - In general, students in IMPACT schools began the study about on par with comparison students, particularly once background variables were controlled for.
• • Looking at reading EOG test scores, students in IMPACT schools showed stronger growth curves (faster improvement). Depending on grade, growth was up to 2 points stronger for IMPACT than comparison students.
  • Examining achievement levels (I – IV) revealed that IMPACT students tended to show more improvement than their comparison counterparts. Looking at the change in achievement level from Year 00 to Year 03, the odds that IMPACT students would increase one or more achievement levels were 6.45 times that of comparison students. Because of loss of data over the long time period, similar analyses examining the change from years 01-03 produced similar results, with the odds of IMPACT students increasing an achievement level being 3.09 times that of comparison students.

• Writing Achievement - Our analyses indicated that 4th grade IMPACT students scored significantly higher than comparison students in 2006 (the only year of available data). However, there was no significant difference between the two groups at the 7th grade level.