CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP: IMPROVING TEACHER QUALITY
ECA is conducting the evaluation of two federally funded Improving Teacher Quality (ITQ) Evaluations for the Massachusetts Gateway Cities, Lowell and Chelsea. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and managed by its Board of Higher Education, ITQ grant interventions – being implemented by UMass Boston – target PD activities for teachers serving children in Pre-K to Grade 2. The PD focuses on increasing teacher content and pedagogical knowledge in mathematics and science in ways that will help close the achievement gap of children in early elementary grades. ECA’s evaluation of the two ITQ grants measures changes in preschool teachers’ pedagogy as a result of specific interventions. ECA collects/analyzes CLASS and observation data, Work Sampling, PPVT, and PALS for different cohorts of children to monitor progress as well as an additional data on students using the Tool for Early Assessment of Mathematics (TEAM).