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What is VITAL?

VITAL, which stands for ‘video in teaching and learning’, offers teachers in New York State video-based instructional materials that align with the State’s standards and core curricula to target students’ particular learning needs in Math and ELA, whether remediation or enrichment.  Funded through the US Department of Education's Ready to Teach program, PBS Channel Thirteen/WNET will deliver VITAL to public school teachers by embedding the instructional resources in a State supported and endorsed reporting tool, the Grow Reports.  When used together, Grow with VITAL has the potential to help teachers monitor and adjust their instruction to reflect the specific learning needs of each student as identified by state assessments. 

How does the study work?

The goal of the research is to determine whether and how instructional practice and student achievement are impacted by teachers’ use of the VITAL materials, which have recently become available state-wide and are available now at http://vital.thirteen.org.  
Throughout the 2007-2008 school year, teachers of grades 3 through 8 across New York State will participate in a series of 3 surveys, interviews, and/or classroom observations – once during the fall, once in the winter, and once in the spring.  Approximately half will be returning VITAL users from last year’s pilot study, while the rest will comprise first-time VITAL users. 

We will compare the nature of second-year participants’ VITAL usage with the sample of first-time users to see how teachers’ use of nySTART, instructional technologies and specifically VITAL evolves over time.  For teachers in the pilot study cohort, we will look for changes in their planning and classroom instruction during the 2nd year of VITAL’s availability and compare these with findings from first-time VITAL users.

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What will the participants be asked to do?

Over the course of the 2007-2008 school year, teachers will be choose to participate in 1 of 3 sets of activities:

• Surveys Only

  (a) 3 surveys for a total of 1.5 hours during the entire school year

• Surveys and Interviews 

  (a) 3 interviews for a total of 4 hours during the entire school year, and
  (b) 3 surveys for a total of 1.5 hours during the entire school year

• Surveys and Observations

  (a) 3 classroom observations of VITAL lessons for a total of 4 hours during the school year, and
  (b) 3 surveys for a total of 1.5 hours during the entire school year

The same group of teachers will participate in all three rounds of their selected evaluation activities in order to detect changes in perceptions and use of VITAL over time.

Additionally, teachers who participate in interviews will be expected to use VITAL occasionally in their lessons to ensure rich discussion about the video resources; observation participants will be asked to conduct a VITAL lesson during the evaluators’ visit.

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Honorarium

All teachers will receive a generous honorarium for their time and commitment to the study:

• Surveys Only

  (a) $25 Barnes and Noble gift cards per survey (total of three surveys)

• Surveys and Interviews 

  (a) $150 honorarium for all 3 interviews, and
  (b) $25 Barnes and Noble gift cards per survey (total of three surveys)

• Surveys and Observations

  (a) $150 honorarium for all 3 observations, and 
  (b) $25 Barnes and Noble gift cards per survey (total of three surveys)

What is the next step?

Any teacher interested in learning more about participating in this year’s study should contact Jessica Yusaitis at jessica@hezel.com or 315-422-3512.

About Hezel Associates

Hezel Associates has worked with local, state and national clients in 30 states across the nation, providing services including education research, benchmark studies, strategic plans, evaluations and state educational technology assessments for nearly two decades.  For more information, go to www.hezel.com.

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