Bellevue Public Schools Project STEM Insights, Year 2 Bellevue Public Schools Project STEM Insights, Year 2 Research & Impact Download the Full Report At-a-Glance Type: Program Evaluation Time Period: 2018 – 2020 Source: GrantProse Grade Level: K-5 Products: Discovery Education ExperienceProfessional Learning Share This Report Bellevue Public Schools (BPS), located in eastern Nebraska, instituted Project STEM (Student, Teacher, Engaging Minds), a five-year program to expand STEM opportunities for military-connected elementary school students with a $1.25 million grant from the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA).The goal of Project STEM is to increase student achievement in math and science across all elementary schools within the district. The program began in the 2018-2019 school year and will complete at the end of the 2022-2023 school year. BPS identified three strategies to meet the grant’s program goals: in-class curriculum support, in-class technology support, and extra-curricular activities. The district partnered with Discovery Education and Edmentum to meet these goals.GrantProse, Inc. was contracted to conduct an independent program evaluation of the Project STEM grant. GrantProse produced a report on Year 2 implementation and another report comparing staff attitudes toward STEM instructional practices from 2019 and 2020 surveys. This document summarizes key insights from both reports.
Sahuarita and Freeport-McMoRan Foundation Partnership Impacts Grade-Level Proficiency Sahuarita and Freeport-McMoRan Foundation Partnership Impacts Grade-Level Proficiency Research & Impact Download the Full Report At-a-Glance Type: Evaluation Study Time Period: Jan 2020 – Oct 2020 Source: Decisive Data Insights Grade Level: K-8 Products: Discovery Education ExperienceScience Techbook Share This Report Sahuarita Unified School District (SUSD), located just south of Tucson, Arizona, serves 5,800 students enrolled in PK-12 grades. The district has been the recipient of funding via the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation (FCX Foundation), whose goal is to build resiliency in communities where it has a presence.This evaluation is the first study that seeks to understand the impact of various SUSD initiatives funded by the FCX Foundation, and was led by researcher Dr. Brett Kramer of Decisive Data Insights. The study began with stakeholder engagement. The research team then collected performance data across the funded projects, analyzed the data to determine partnership effects, and tied those effects back to larger measures to inform the direction of future investments.The investment in Discovery Education led to an increase in math, science, and reading proficiency. And, with 18 positive effects across grade and subjects, it can be concluded that use of Discovery Education led to better academic outcomes in every subject and grade level, to some degree, than what would have been attained without its use.