Impact and Reach
As an educational organization, Creative Change values the critical role of evaluation. We utilize multiple, on-going assessment strategies to evaluate our programs' impact on teaching and learning, as well as our overall reach. This section provides a summary of these outcomes.
Impacts on teaching and learning
Our programs are designed to impact two key areas: Teacher quality and student achievement. For each program or project, we develop measurable objectives for these areas.
- Teacher quality objectives focus on strengthening teachers' interdisciplinary content knowledge and increasing the use of effective instructional practices.
- Student achievement objectives focus on improving students' interdisciplinary content knowledge; improving their attitudes about community involvement or civic efficacy; and increasing their abilities to work in groups, solve problems, and apply knowledge to real-world problems.
Evaluation methods
Consistent with sound educational practice, we utilize multiple forms of assessment (formative and summative) to evaluate the impacts of our programs.
- To assess teachers, we evaluate the quality of the units they create; observe teachers' practice; conduct surveys to determine teachers' intention to use targeted instructional practices; and evaluate changes in content knowledge, attitudes, and awareness.
- To assess impacts on students, we administer pre- and post-tests of students' knowledge and attitudes; conduct on-site observations; and evaluate samples of student work for evidence of critical thinking, interdisciplinary content knowledge, and problem-solving abilities.
Outcomes
Program evaluations show consistent and positive results on both students and teachers, with increases in
- Students’ and teachers interdisciplinary content knowledge.
- Students’ understanding of how coursework is linked to their lives and communities.
- Students’ abilities to connect learning to real-world problems and issues.
- Teachers’ use of effective practices and integration of community issues.
We’ll be adding more detailed information on these outcomes. Join our mailing list to stay informed.
View results of Our Town and Sustainable by Design.
Program Reach and Dissemination
Since Creative Change's incorporation in 2002, our programs have reached over 1000 teachers and their students in our home state of Michigan and across the country. Examples:
- A collaboration with Redefining Progress and teacher educators in California brought Ecological Footprint curricula and teacher education modules to 250 CA science and social studies teachers and their students.
- An on-going partnership with the Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation has brought our curricula and teacher education programs to 300+ teachers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
- A collaboration with Purdue University has brought the Our Town program to schools in eight states.
- We’ve provided curricula to over 150 teacher education students at Eastern Michigan University, helping to support a new generation of educators to teach for sustainability.
- We developed materials on human rights and anti-discrimination for the United Nations Global Teaching and Learning Project, bringing our approaches to a global audience.
Our Focus on Continuous Improvement
We understand the need for on-going learning and improvement within the organization. As our programs continue to evolve, we are developing new ways to measure their effectiveness. Currently, we are refining our strategies for ensuring that our teacher education programs result in measurable effects on student achievement in the classroom. Please contact us to learn more.