External Evaluation Validates Goalbook Toolkit Impact Within Evergreen Public Schools
Qualitative study of educators in the Washington school district finds Goalbook increases educator efficiency and efficacy when it comes to mapping and creating goals for all students
Summary
Two researchers — Washington State University-Vancouver’s Michael Dunn, Ph.D., and University of New Mexico’s Mary Rice, Ph.D., completed a qualitative study to understand educator usage and perspectives of Goalbook Toolkit as a valued resource in Evergreen Public Schools, a district located in Vancouver, Washington.
The study consisted of a two-pronged approach — first, a short online survey was sent to educators, and those who completed the survey were then invited to be part of two focus groups to share how Goalbook improves instructional design and goal-setting for students.
The educators surveyed found the most value in Goalbook Toolkit when it came to goal-setting and instructional strategy around Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals. At a high-level, educators found the following most beneficial to their practice:
- The connection between state standards, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) strategies, and anchor goals
- Goalbook’s intuitive assistance with goal writing
- The wide variety of goals and the ease in adapting them to fit specific learner needs
- The alignment of IEP goals to state academic standards
- The strategies, lessons, and resources within Goalbook Toolkit for instructional planning aligned to specific goals
Background
Evergreen Public Schools is a K-12 public school district in Clark County, Washington, and serves the city of Vancouver. The district’s 1,684 classroom teachers serve a current enrollment of 24,972 students, including a dedicated Special Education Department that works to prepare every student for post-secondary education/training, employment, and independent living.
Special education at ESD is not a “place,” but a continuum of services provided to meet the needs of their diverse student population. On that continuum, ESD works to provide specially-designed instruction, supplementary aids and services to the general education classroom, collaborative team-teaching services, specialized class services, and other related services like occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy, and more.
Continuous Improvement
Evergreen has had a strong and successful Goalbook Toolkit implementation since 2017–18. For the last two years, district special education leaders have partnered with Goalbook to provide professional learning focused on Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The district’s focus for 2020–21 is on integrating and understanding UDL within instructional planning to increase access points for students with special needs in the general curriculum within a continued remote/distance learning setting. District special education leaders see Goalbook Toolkit as a key resource for special educators in collaborating with classroom teachers to meet the needs of students this year within the learning environment redesign known as Special Education Remote Learning 2.0.
Participant Usage & Perspectives
When asked about their assignment or role within their school, learning support providers accounted for 37% of the evaluation respondents, followed by academic learning classroom teachers (21%) and those who worked as part of the Social Communication & Integration Program (16%) within the district. Of those who marked “Other” for this survey question, three participants indicated that they were Speech-Language Pathologists.
When asked about Goalbook Toolkit, the majority of respondents pointed to the assistance and ease related to creating IEP goals. When digging deeper, this was a function of several features within Goalbook Toolkit which respondents find beneficial within their practice.
Standards-Aligned Goals
Many educators appreciate the Goal-Writing Wizard, a tool within the Goalbook Toolkit that helps them discover targeted instructional standards, objectives, and strategies to meet the needs of individual students.
“I use Goalbook for writing individual IEP goals, and when working with a co-teacher to assist with designing lessons and providing strategies and support.”
“It is a good resource when I am stuck on ideas for connecting to standards.”
“I need a broad spectrum of activities to help have choices to be of interest to students…Goalbook helps the educator to write individualized goals. The strategies are helpful to general education teachers, too. I think it is an awesome resource!”
“I find Goalbook really helpful. Goalbook helps me find relevant goals to the standards and grade levels…Goalbook is useful for the 70–80% of goals that I write, and helps me to write more correct and effective goals to guide learning.”
Alignment to Present-Levels & State Standards
Some educators shared that they liked knowing that goals would be based on a student’s present levels by grade and by areas of strength/need, while others appreciated the identifiers and alignment to State Standards.
“It’s the best goal-writing software that I’ve worked with. I like how it attaches to Common Core.”
“I like the assistance with goal writing and knowing it is all based on present levels.”
Adaptability & Differentiation
Survey comments and interview responses highlighted how easy it is for educators to look at a variety of goals and adapt them as needed, while others find the varied levels of support to help students achieve grade-level goals most beneficial. Educators find value in the alignment and connection between the various types of goals
“The connection to the standards, and the ability to differentiate for students.”
“I like that goals are established and created at grade level. I love the different levels of support — mid-level, moderate, and intense. Very helpful.”
“I like the connection with standard, UDL, and anchor goals.”
“I like the anchor goals, so I have an idea of which goals to focus on.”
Universal Strategies
Educators and special education personnel also value the strategies, lessons, and resources integrated within Goalbook Toolkit, including the Strategy Wizard, a tool used to identify specific instructional strategies that address a learning barrier of an individual student within a particular subject.
“I like the strategies because it provides ready-to-use resources and tools such as charts, data collection tools, and graphic organizers.”
“I always get new ideas on how to help students and close gaps on an individual basis.”
“I like the accompanying lessons and resources for teaching specific goals.”
Ease of Use
Above all, educators and special education personnel find Goalbook is not only easy to use for personalized goal-setting but that there is guided support at the ready.
“It’s easy to use, and it’s specific to students.”
“Easy to use, with strategies at your fingertips.”
Overall Satisfaction with Goalbook
When educators were asked if they felt using Goalbook Toolkit had a positive impact on student learning and their overall opinion of Goalbook Toolkit, overall 94% of educators cited Goalbook as a valuable resource that they will continue to use to support efficiency and effectiveness within the scope of their practice to meet the needs of students.
Impact and Program Evaluation
Based on research and evaluations conducted to-date, Goalbook has demonstrated positive outcomes for teaching and learning. The results from Evergreen’s independent evaluation of Goalbook Toolkit reflect similar results cited in two previous efficacy studies which found Goalbook Toolkit promotes educator best practice integrating the 3-Part Process of identifying student present levels of performance, creating standards-aligned IEP goals, and identifying UDL strategies to support students in achieving their goals (DC Public Schools, 2014 ; San Francisco State University, 2014). Furthermore, the San Francisco University study (2014) found that goals written with the support of Goalbook Toolkit contain 2.5 times more information for planning and measuring an individual student’s success.
Goalbook is committed to understanding the impact on educator practice and student outcomes across varied local contexts as part of an ongoing cycle of continuous improvement for our district and school partners as well as our products. Measuring efficacy may be done internally within a school/district or conducted by an external resource, as reflected in Evergreen Public Schools. Regardless of approach, Goalbook is well-poised with impact and evaluation resources to support our district/school partners in understanding, measuring, and communicating impact.
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