Survey of ChalleNGe Program Teachers: Their Characteristics and Pedagogical Approaches.

摘要

This study examines how teachers qualifications and pedagogical approaches differ across the 35 National Guard Youth Challenge Program (ChalleNGe) sites. ChalleNGe serves high school dropouts with both academic and noncognitive components, including a postresidential mentoring phase. We developed and fielded an online teacher survey. Using the survey data and information from the programs annual reports, we investigate whether different teacher qualifications or pedagogical approaches are correlated with programs average cadet outcomes (e.g., graduation rates, postresidential placement). We also attempt to identify classroom methods that may be effective with disadvantaged youth, who typically perform below grade-level (the ChalleNGe student body). Of the numerous factors we considered, only a few were found to be significantly correlated with cadet outcomes namely, the prevalence of postgraduate degrees among teaching staff, consistency in the gender makeup of classes, a greater emphasis on small-group instruction, emphasis on advanced math and math life skills, and a focus on critiquing and evaluating texts and writing to summarize.