Your school has chosen to participate in the Pathways-to-Success (Pathways) program. Pathways is a classroom-based intervention designed to help students develop goals as well as strategies for achieving those goals, which may lead to better grades in school. In the summer before you begin implementing Pathways, eighth-grade teachers and one additional counselor or other designee(s) from your school will receive training. This training will prepare you to implement the Pathways program during homeroom, advisory, or another selected class period in the fall.
Study Purpose
The research team (from the University of Southern California, Summitlab Corporation, and the American Institutes for Research [AIR]) is studying the Pathways program to examine the effectiveness of the program when implemented by teachers in rural and non-rural settings. The study will examine teachers’ implementation of the Pathways program and whether participating students do better in school in 8th grade, and in high school, and beyond. The study will not be evaluating your performance as a participating teacher but will use your feedback and information about your implementation to improve the program and supporting resources.
What Are We Asking of You
As a participant in this study, you will be asked to participate in training, implementation and data collection activities. Prior to your school’s implementing year, you will be asked to complete 3 days of training outlining how to implement the Pathways program. Following training, you will be asked to implement Pathways during homeroom, an advisory period, or other selected class period during the first six weeks of the school year.
We are also asking you to participate in selected data collection activities as part of the study. The data we collect will allow us to better determine whether Pathways is effective at improving student outcomes. In addition, the data may be used to help identify ways to continue improving the program.
With your permission, we will ask you to participate in the following data collection activities:
- Teacher Training Feedback Survey. Following the teacher training, you will be asked to submit feedback on your experience through an online survey. The purpose of the survey is to get your feedback on the quality of training sessions and identify ways to make the training more useful.
- Teacher Implementation Feedback. After you are finished implementing Pathways you will be asked to submit feedback on your experience through an online survey. The purpose of this survey is to get your feedback on implementation of the program.
- Training Observations. Summer training sessions will be video-recorded so that quality of delivery can be assessed and may be observed by staff from Summitlab and AIR to ensure quality and fidelity.
- Teacher Sustainability Survey. A short questionnaire will be distributed during the first three months of the school year following the first year of implementation. This survey will solicit information on whether you or your school chose to continue implementing Pathways after the initial year of implementation and why or why not.
- Video Recording. You will be asked to video-record each of the Pathways sessions you deliver. To make this possible, we will provide you with an easy-to-use video recording device (e.g., a GoPro camera). These video recordings will focus on teachers implementing activities in class. We will use videos to examine program implementation and fidelity of implementation. We will also identify best examples of teachers implementing activities to use to train additional teachers to implement Pathways.
You have the right to review a copy of the questions that you will be asked. If you would like to do so, please contact Dr. Nicholas Sorensen at sorensen@summitlab.org or Samantha Neiman at sneiman@air.org for a copy of the materials.
What We Offer
You will be directly compensated in three ways:
- You will be compensated for your time to attend the summer teacher training and six one-hour weekly check-in calls at a rate of $30 per hour. We will distribute funds twice, once after completion of the summer training, and once more after Pathways has been implemented (mid-November).
- Nevada educators will receive Continuing Education Credits for the time you spend in summer training (number of hours for credits will be determined by the Nevada Department of Education and is estimated to be 23 hours); Colorado educators will receive a Professional Development certificate that you can submit to CDE to receive Continuing Education credits.
- You will also be provided $50 gift cards to thank you for your participation in data collection activities.
Privacy
The research team uses strict data security practices to protect the privacy of all information we collect. We will not provide information that identifies you to anyone outside the research team.
Benefits and Risks
Allowing us to include your information will help us understand how best to support teachers and schools using the Pathways program.
Any time your district shares student information, there is a risk of accidental disclosure. As described previously, the research team uses strict data security procedures, ensuring this risk is very small.
Freedom to Withdraw
Participation in this study is voluntary. If you decline, there will be no penalty to you and there will be no effect on your relationship with your school. You may skip any question that is asked and may withdraw from the study at any time without penalty.
More Information
If you would like more information about this study, you may contact Dr. Nicholas Sorensen at sorensen@summitlab.org or Samantha Neiman at sneiman@air.org. For questions regarding your rights as a research participant, please contact the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at IRBChair@air.org or toll free at 1-800-634-0797.
Consent Form
Please fill out the following form. This will let us know whether or not you consent to participate in the study. When you are done, please click "Submit".