Ontario Psychological Association (OPA)Student Assessment Project

“Designing a Project for Success”

Date: February 6, 2009

Presented by: Marg Peppler, Project ManagerDr. Beverley Terrell-Deutsch, Team Lead

For: Ministry of Education2009 Ontario Education Research Symposium

Feb 6, 2009 2

Outline

• Background

• Project Governance

• Project Objectives

• Evaluation Strategy

• Results – Highlights in Closing the Gap

• Conclusions

Feb 6, 2009 3

Background

• Early in 2006: issue of wait times for professional assessments tabled by the Minister’s Advisory Committee on Special Education

• April 2006: OPA were approached by the Ministry of Education to develop and lead a project to provide a $20M grant to school boards

• Purpose: support the school boards and school authorities to reduce wait times for students requiring professional assessments and to enhance teacher capacity

• Target Students: Junior Kindergarten to Grade 4

Feb 6, 2009 4

Project Governance

Project Manager &Team

Advisory Group

Core Committee

OPABoard of Directors Decision Makers on Behalf

of the OPA Board of Directors

Accountable for the Project

Responsible to Core Committee for Planning,

Execution, Control, Closure

Inform the Decisionsof the Project Manager

and Team

Feb 6, 2009 5

Project Objectives

• reduce wait times for students in junior kindergarten to grade IV requiring professional assessments

• enhance teacher capacity to provide effective programming for students provided with professional assessments

• improve literacy / numeracy for students provided with professional assessments

• sustain assessment process improvements for the long term

Feb 6, 2009 6

Evaluation Strategy

Clear project objectives & measures defined,

approved, & communicated to school

boards up front

School boards develop

Assessment Capacity Building

Plans

100% Success Model

Monitor school board progress and coaching to facilitate success

Test evaluation questions/data requirementswith school boards:

•Right data / questions to measure project success?•Clear / understandable instructions?

•Reasonable effort to acquire / provide data?

Web-based software for data input with reporting / analysis capability

at back end

Involve decision makers in data

reporting

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

Step 4

Step 5 Step 6

Feb 6, 2009 7

Results – Highlights in Closing the Gap

• Building capacity of teachers to provide effective programming for students provided with a professional assessment

• Impact on student achievement

• Status of activities to sustain assessment process improvements for the long term

Feb 6, 2009 8

Priorities for Building Capacity of Teachers

Feb 6, 2009 9

Priorities for Building Capacity of Professional Services Staff

Feb 6, 2009 10

Classroom T eacher Feedback on Literacy Gains for Students Provided with a Professional

Assessment - % of School Boards

69%

1% 0%

29%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Agree N eutral D isagree Too Early to Tell

Students demonstrate gains in literacy performance

Feb 6, 2009 11

Priorities to Sustain Assessment Process Improvements

Feb 6, 2009 12

Sustain Assessment Process Improvements

• Results report “Summary of Key Results Areas – Critical Findings”:– is available in English/French on the Ontario Psychological

Association website at: http://www.psych.on.ca/?id1=117

• Resource Guide “Sharing Promising Practices”:– produced in English/French– contains brief descriptions of each school board project with 12

of them in more detail– More than 6000 copies distributed to Ontario school boards and

other project stakeholders– For copies contact OPA at 416-961-5552 – Carla Mardonet

Feb 6, 2009 13

Conclusions

• 100% success model• Established a governance structure• Set clear direction with objectives and evaluation

measures at the beginning• Developed plans to meet project objectives and

monitored progress along the way• Tested evaluation questions / data requirements

and made changes based on stakeholder feedback• Involved decision makers• Developed web-based software to efficiently

collect, verify, summarize and analyze the data• Planned for knowledge mobilization

Feb 6, 2009 14

Designing a Project for Success

Ministry of Education

Advisory Group

OPACore

Committee

School Boards

CommunityPractitioners

OPA Project Team

EDU SpecialEducation

Leads

ACPOSB

OPA

“Understanding, responding to, and managing the expectations of project stakeholders is one of the most crucial ingredients in designing a project for success. In the final

analysis, a project is only successful when the stakeholders declare it so”.