Castlemont Community of Small Schools

Site Info:
Castlemont Community of Small Schools:

1. School of Computers, Business and Information Technology School (CBITS)
2. Leadership Preparatory Academy
3. East Oakland School of the Arts (EOSA)

Oakland, CA
Principal Investigator: Glynda Hull
DUSTY Website: http://oaklanddusty.org
Email: glynda@socrates.berkeley.edu

Participants

Approx 100 youth

Aged 14-19 years

75% African American, 20% Latino/Chicano, 5% Pacific Islander

Collaborators

Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement
Castlemont High School – Leadership Preparatory, East Oakland School of the Arts, and Castlemont Business, Information, and Technology School
Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley

Activities

• Digital storytelling
• Poetry writing
• Computer-assisted music composition
• Homework Assistance/College preparation

Goals

• Increase computer, information, and basic literacy skills for participating youth
• Increase knowledge and improve attitudes and aspirations toward higher learning for participating youth
• Help participating youth explore new ways to express themselves and tell their own stories and to value their own and one another's ideas
• Help participating youth experience the power of personal expression through multimedia
• To learn and practice multiple literacies, including technological literacy, in a relaxed and supportive setting.
• To find new ways to express themselves and tell their own stories, and to value their own and one another’s ideas.
• To experience the power of personal expression through multimedia.
• To take on long term projects in the process of learning digital storytelling, and to learn via that process about goal setting, long term planning, and about their own abilities to persevere and work hard in the process of creating original work.
• To build strong, constructive relationships with peers and undergraduate student mentors through creative literacy activities.
• Through interacting with UC student role models, to envision their own possible futures as college-going youth and to explore options in regard to colleges/universities and the collateral activities (financial aid, SAT tests) that are part of the college-going experience.
• To develop a sense of themselves as competent and critical thinkers, learners and communicators.
• To improve their Language Arts skills in the three areas of reading, writing and speaking.

Evaluation Strategies

Two strands of evaluation occur at Castlemont High School for the DUSTY Program – an internal evaluation which is informal and is also the basis for research, and an external evaluation which is conducted by an independent evaluation team.

The internal evaluation consisted of the following:

1. Analysis of undergraduates’ field notes to track changes in learning for K-12 participants
2. Analysis of undergraduates’ case studies of Castlemont participants (to assess same development and to analyze in conjunction with written artifacts)
3. Pre/post literacy and technology inventories; attitudinal inventories
4. Ethnographic observation, drawing from: researcher field notes; audio- and videotape data
5. Focus group interview data
6. Drafts of children’s written work
7. Analysis of digital stories

In addition to the ongoing internal evaluation, the external evaluation includes the following approaches:

1. Establishing control groups by CST Language Arts Scores to measure the effects of DUSTY on students’ grades in the language arts
2. Comparing students’ progress on CA standardized tests and grades
3. comparing standardized pre/post instruments on reading and writing
4. comparing student attitudes about learning, achievement, career interests, and postsecondary learning.

In addition, there is a list of guiding questions that are an overarching framework for both the external and internal evaluations; the guiding questions include the following:

1. To what extent and in what ways do participants' language arts skills (writing and reading) demonstrate improvement?
2. To what extent and in what ways do participants’ technological and computer skills and knowledge demonstrate improvement?
3. To what extent and in what ways do participants' images of self as learner, thinker and communicator develop?
4. To what extent and in what ways do participants’ knowledge?
5. How did learning digital story telling have unexpected outcomes on affect student knowledge& learning?

Evaluation Results

Both the external and internal evaluations of the UCB DUSTY Program target very “high risk” student populations within the Oakland Unified School District. The intent of the program is to engage students in educational technology while increasing their abilities in language arts performance and creating awareness in career opportunities and further education. The Castlemont participants learned:

• to practice multiple literacies in a supportive setting, including writing about themselves and creating texts that described themselves and their experiences.
• To improve their Language Arts skills in areas of reading and writing.
• to build strong, constructive relationships with peers and undergraduate student mentors through creative literacy activities.
• to envision their own possible futures as college-going youth and to put into action the skills they learn to negotiate the “college-going” path (such as applying for financial aid, practicing for entrance exams, etc) through interacting with UC student role models.
• to develop a sense of themselves as competent thinkers, learners and communicators.
• to find new ways to express themselves and tell their own stories, and to value their own and one another’s ideas.
• to experience the power of personal (and group) expression through multimedia, including digital story-telling and music.
• to build awareness of cultural similarities and differences.

Research Results

In progress

Cole Middle School

Site Info:
Cole Middle School

Oakland, CA
Principal Investigator: Professor Glynda Hull (Education, UC Berkeley)
This site engages low-income youth in middle school grades in “digital storytelling,” literacy-building activities using a variety of multi-media technologies.
DUSTY Website: http://oaklanddusty.org
Email: glynda@socrates.berkeley.edu

Participants

21 youth

Aged 11-14 years

95% African-American,
5% Cambodian

Collaborators

Project Yield/MOCHA
Cole Middle School, Oakland CA
Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley

Activities

• College Prep discussions
• Digital storytelling using Powerpoint
• Comedy sketches
• Writing song lyrics
• Computer-assisted music composition

Goals

• Increase computer, information, and basic literacy skills for participating youth
• Increase knowledge and improve attitudes and aspirations toward higher learning for participating youth
• Give participating youth new ways to express themselves and tell their own stories and to value their own and one another’s ideas
• Provide participating youth an arena to build strong, constructive relationships with peers and undergraduate student mentors

Evaluation Strategies

Internal Evaluation:

• Analysis of undergraduates’ field notes and case studies of children to track changes in learning for K-12 participants
• Pre/post literacy and technology inventories
• Ethnographic observation, drawing from researcher field notes; audio- and videotape data
• Focus group interview data
• Drafts of children’s written work
• Analysis of digital stories

External Evaluation: DUSTY at Cole is undergoing a similar external evaluation process to the work being done at the Castlemont Community of Small Schools. This evaluation work is still in process.

Stege Elementary School

Richmond, CA
Principal Investigator: Glynda Hull
DUSTY Website: http://oaklanddusty.org
Email: glynda@socrates.berkeley.edu

Participants

20-25 children

Aged 6-10 years

95% African American, 5% Asian (mix - Cambodian,Vietnamese)

Collaborators

Stege Elementary School
Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley

Activities

• Collaborative exploration of educational software
• Organized sports and games
• Homework assistance
• Digital Story-telling and writing

Goals

• Help children build strong, constructive relationships with peers and undergraduate student mentors through creative literacy activities
• Through interacting with UC student role models, to envision their own possible futures and to start to communicate about themselves and their environments to each other and to other students in other contexts.
• To develop a sense of themselves as competent thinkers, learners and communicators.

Evaluation Strategies

• Analysis of undergraduate field notes to track changes in children and youth’s learning
• Analysis of case studies and field notes of undergraduate tutors/mentors to track attitudes and changes in attitudes of the participants towards their literacy skills and their academic environment
• Analysis of site coordinator(s) field notes to evaluate the effect of the interactions between the tutors and the Stege participants, as well as to evaluate the effect of the use of technology in an afterschool program
• Analysis of participants writings and digital stories to evaluate growth of each student in relation to literacy skills, attitudes, and use of technology

Evaluation Results

This site is new to DUSTY (since March, 2005) and has not completely evaluated the results

Research Findings

In progress

ASEP (After School Enrichment Program)

McKinley Elementary School
San Francisco, CA
Principal Investigator: Professor Glynda Hull (Education, UC Berkeley)
DUSTY Website: http://oaklanddusty.org
Email: glynda@socrates.berkeley.edu

Participants

120 children and youth

Ages 5-11 years

35% Latino, 11% White, 34% African American, 20% range of other ethnicities

Collaborators

D.U.S.T.Y. (Digital Underground Storytelling for Youth)
Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley

Activities

• Claymation
• Digital Storytelling
• Video/Film Production

Goals

• Increase computer, technology, information, and basic literacy skills for participating youth
• Increase knowledge and improve attitudes and aspirations toward higher learning and careers for participating youth
• Give participating youth new ways to express themselves and tell their own stories and to value their own and one another’s ideas
• Provide participating youth an arena to build strong, constructive relationships with peers and undergraduate student mentors
• Give participating youth the tools with which to create their own technology based art

Evaluation Strategies

Analysis of undergraduates’ field notes and case studies of children to track changes in learning for K-5 participants

Literacy: Individual and Societal Development

Education 140AC
Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley

Course Instructors

Glynda Hull, Professor (Education)

Participants

120 undergraduates
1 graduate student

Most undergraduates involved are Education minors and plan to pursue careers in education, especially in urban schools

Fieldwork

Undergraduates participate for 3 or more hours per week, either in DUSTY or the Coronado YMCA UC Links program.

Course Goals

• Improve undergraduate education for participating students by connecting theory to practice and improving conceptual and practical knowledge of course content
• Provide undergraduates with an opportunity to explore the possibility of teaching as a career, especially in under-resourced schools
• Improve undergraduates’ understanding of how to work successfully across cultural and racial boundaries

Evaluation Strategies

• A local adaptation of UC Links pre-test/post-test survey
• Analysis of undergraduate field notes to assess development of content knowledge and understanding
• Analysis of undergraduates’ case studies of children to assess development of content knowledge and understanding
• Analysis of researchers’ field notes and observations on undergraduate participation at the after school sites