Description:

This evaluation investigates the long-term impact of the Innovative School Calendar (ISC) since year one on academic performance outcomes, chronic absenteeism, and self-reported perceptions of well-being for Grades 3, 4, and 5 students enrolled in Arcola Elementary School. To examine the impact of ISC enrollment on academic performance outcomes, a cohort analysis and a longitudinal analysis were conducted. To examine the effects of ISC enrollment on factors such as chronic absenteeism rates, and self-reported perceptions of well-being, school-level descriptive analyses were conducted to demonstrate the changes that occurred across school years since implementation began. Overall, grade-level and longitudinal academic performance outcomes are mixed since implementation of ISC, despite additional weeks of instruction occurring every school year. Results vary across time for year one students and by grade-level.

Recommendations:

Based on the results from this evaluation, it is recommended for the district to maintain current implementation of ISC for one additional year with the following recommendations:

• Continue to make decisions based on the data. Although academic performance results are mixed, it is important to have regular analysis of student performance because it will help Arcola ES ISC program leaders to tailor interventions that hopefully improve these outcomes.
• It is important to engage communities in order to improve the goals of the program and to gain stakeholder feedback. This could involve collaboration with the Office of Curriculum and Instructional Programs (OCIP), as suggested in previous reports, in order to enhance understanding of the current education materials that are being used for Arcola ES students.

A response to the recommendations in this report, prepared by the Division of Early Childhood and Title I Programs and Recovery Funds, can be found here.

File Name: ISC 2023-2024 Final.pdf (6.2MB PDF)