TeachUNITED and ACT collaborate to conduct pilot study
TeachUNITED, a global educator professional development provider, has announced a collaboration with ACT to launch a new pilot study aimed at measuring the effect that educator efficacy training and coaching has in the classroom.
This pilot study will administer an ACT social and emotional learning survey to teachers enrolled in the TeachUNITED (TU) Coaching for Impact and Early Career Educators professional development programs. Participating teachers will complete the assessment both before and after TeachUNITED training to measure the improvement of their teaching practice as well as their social and emotional skills, teacher motivation, burnout, and school culture.
“Many social and emotional skills underpin collective teacher efficacy, which is the group belief of teachers and leaders in their ability to positively affect students. Collective efficacy has been shown to be one of the top factors that will move the needle on student achievement, and many of the tools and strategies trained in our TU programs – mindset, personalization, engagement – work to build teacher efficacy,” said TeachUNITED CEO, Heather Hiebsch. “Our ability to collaborate with ACT to validate components of our research basis and program model is vital for our work with teachers and leaders in rural communities across the U.S.”
ACT’s research-based social and emotional learning survey uses innovative item types to measure social and emotional skills that are aligned with the industry-leading framework developed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), and to gauge school climate from the perspective of educators.
“Teachers and counselors alike tell ACT that social and emotional skills such as collaboration and persistence are critical for their students’ success,” said Jeremy Burrus, senior director of behavior and skill measurement at ACT. “By participating in this pilot, TeachUNITED is helping schools measure their educator’s social and emotional skill so that staff can identify their relative strengths and lean on those strengths to support students in the development of their own SEL skills.”
The pilot study is set to begin in the fall of 2023 with a new cohort of teacher participants from New Hampshire schools with post-program administration in the spring of 2024. Schools will receive reports throughout their training, and a research report summarizing results is planned for the end of 2024.
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About TeachUNITED
TeachUNITED is a global non-profit dedicated to empowering rural and underserved teachers with job-embedded coaching, evidence-based strategies, and small-cohort peer learning communities. Teachers experience transformed teaching and learning and improved student outcomes.Visit us at www.teachunited.org