Literacy Design Collaborative 2017-2018 Evaluation Report. CRESST Report 863

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) was created to support teachers in implementing college and career readiness standards in order to teach literacy skills throughout the content areas. Teachers work collaboratively with coaches to further develop their expertise and design standards-driven, literacy-rich writing assignments within their existing curriculum across all content areas. This annual report reflects the second year of implementation in 14 Cohort 1 schools, which began implementation during 2016-2017, and the first year of implementation for 31 Cohort 2 schools, which commenced at the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year. Findings from multiple sources including participant surveys and analyses of student outcomes reveal positive results for the LDC intervention. Teacher, teacher leader, and administrator participants reported positive attitudes toward LDC. Participants across all groups perceived a positive impact on student outcomes. Additionally, analysis of student outcomes confirmed participants' positive views. Our quasi-experimental design study revealed that LDC had statistically significant effects on Cohort 2 middle school students' English language arts (ELA) performance, with an effect size of 0.15 for students receiving LDC instruction in all three core content areas: ELA, science, and social studies/history.