Research
Research
National Evaluation and Research Grant Experience
National Writing Project/SRI International.
Hired by SRI International as an external expert consultant on a national, federally funded evaluation of the National Writing Project. Responsible for developing rubrics, training scorers, scoring data, and consulting on data analysis. (2006-present)
Illinois Student Assignment Study.
Expert consultant for evaluation of University of Illinois literacy study of third, fifth, and eighth grade classrooms involved in a collaborative literacy improvement project. Responsible for developing rubrics, scoring data, and consulting on data analysis. (2009-2010)
Chicago High School Redesign Initiative.
Responsible for three-year evaluation of Authentic Intellectual Achievement in twenty-two restructured small high schools in Chicago funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Also responsible for follow-up professional development series and training of school leaders to support and sustain change within the schools. (2006-2008)
Putnam City Project/SRI International.
Hired by SRI International as an external expert consultant for a grant program comparing writing achievement in classrooms with and without mobile computing technology. Responsible for coding writing data on constructs of Authentic Intellectual Achievement, assisting with data analysis, and writing results for reporting and publication. (Summer 2006)
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation National School District and Network Grants Program /SRI International.
Hired by SRI International as an external expert consultant on a five-year national evaluation of restructuring high schools funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Responsible for developing rubrics, training scorers, scoring data, and consulting on data analysis. (2003-2006)
National Writing Project/Academy for Educational Development.
Co-developed model and trained assistants to conduct multi-year evaluation of the National Writing Project, using naturalistic data from NWP’s nationwide sites. (1999-2002)
Annenberg Challenge/Consortium on Chicago School Research.
Co-developed standards defining authentic intellectual achievement in writing, trained scorers, and conducted analyses to evaluate over 1,000 teachers’ assignments and 2,800 students’ written responses collected from Chicago Public Schools. (1997-2001)
Center for School Improvement, University of Chicago.
Multi-year study of Development of Teachers’ Reasoning and Instructional Decision Making. (1998-2000)
Faculty/Student Collaborative Research
What Do Students Have to Say?: Online versus Traditional Journaling
Carmen Manning and Jill Kotta, UW-Eau Claire
Summary
This project had two main purposes. The first was to determine if there are material differences in the nature of student journal responses to literature when that journaling is done in WebCT, an electronic discussion forum, versus traditionally written on paper. The second was to provide the student collaborator, an English Education student, experience with teacher action research.
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Continuing the Conversation: Further Research into Using WebCT for Journal Response
Carmen Manning and Jessica Kazeck, UW-Eau Claire
Summary
This project was a continuation of the Online versus Traditional Journaling project. It was continued because it did not engage all questions desired since it only lasted one semester. The preliminary research was expanded with a new student collaborator. The continued research dealt with the differences between students completing journal entries online in WebCT and in a traditional paper format by collecting more data to confirm and expand preliminary results."
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Learning to Write: Collecting Benchmark Writing Samples from First-Grade Students
Carmen Manning, UW-Eau Claire
Summary
This project focused on first-grade students at Roosevelt Elementary School in Eau Claire and had three main objectives. The first was to compile a book of benchmark writing samples to trace the nature of student writing produced over the course of first-grade for students typical to the school. The second was to use the benchmark writing samples for multiple purposes in the school: for teacher collaboration on writing assessment and curriculum development, as writing models for students, and as a basis for communication between teachers and parents regarding the writing development of their children. The third was to use the benchmark writing samples as data to investigate the differences and roadblocks to writing development in a diverse group of first grade writers.
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Is That Writing Project Engaging?: A Study of Writing Assignments in the Eau Claire Public Schools
Carmen Manning, UW-Eau Claire
Summary
The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which teacher writing assignments across grade levels in the Eau Claire Public Schools invite and compel students to participate in Engaged Literacy activities.