Article archive / January 1, 2011
Originally published: . Volume 2, No. 5. Source pages: 1, 5, 6.
Dr. George Noell, LSU professor and licensed school psychologist, is receiving national recognition for his innovative research on behalf of Louisiana’s Board of Regents.
In a far-reaching effort that began in 2003, Dr. Noell created a research design with the goal of predicting children’s’ school success. He and his team started by building a very large multivariate database of over 300,000 students. Then he developed hierarchical linear models where children were “nested” with their teachers and teachers nested within their schools. Over several years, George refined and tested the models until the results became stable and reliable, and the factors that impact children’s success became clear.
One outcome of his work is the value- added Teacher Preparation Program Assessment Model. Using the business concept of making affordable changes in a product or service that create high value to the customer, George’s efforts blended with the Regents’ goals of accountability and economical improvements for Louisiana’s schools.
Among other things, the results provided estimates of how teachers can impact children’s success, and also how education programs impact teachers. This work gives state decision-makers the facts they need to make the best and most affordable decisions for Louisiana’s children.
In the early stages of his research, directions were not always so clear as they are today. George told the Times that when he first became involved, “People were struggling to know if teacher preparation programs were successful. There were lots of opinions,” he said, “but not much evidence to help––very little fact-based information for people to make their decisions.”
That has changed. In December 2009 education officials from ten states visited Louisiana to better understand the models. In December last year, the Baton Rouge Advocate reported that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “…praised Louisiana as the first state to both redesign its college teacher education programs and create an assessment model to examine the results.” Duncan suggested that other states should try and follow in Louisiana’s footsteps.
Louisiana and George’s efforts are receiving national media attention. In a December 2008 editorial by the New York Times, “What Louisiana Can Teach,” the author pointed to the state’s achievements. In October 2009 George was interviewed by Time Magazine and in December 2009 the Washington Post published a review “Louisiana Serves as a Model in Teacher Assessment.” The topic continues in a lively debate in the Wall Street Journal.
In August 2010 Regent’s Chairman Artist Terrell said, “The Board of Regents is proud to have produced a national model for assessing teacher preparation programs. Our board supported the development of the Value- Added Teacher Preparation Assessment Model in 2003 by Dr. George Noell…” And he said, “…We have supported the release of the results to the public since 2006-07, giving our colleges and private providers critical information on how they are performing. This is accountability at its best!”
“Louisiana continues to outpace all other states in the nation in releasing evaluations of its university and private provided teacher preparation and certification programs,” the Regents noted about latest results in August 2010.
Dr. George Noell’s rare combination of talents may be at the center of these innovations. He is a licensed school psychologist and a board certified behavior analyst, who has practiced at the clinic level. He has published extensively, including in the topic of teacher preparation. As an LSU professor, he instructs doctoral candidates in school psychology, but also he teaches multivariate analysis and research design.
“My first ideas were all over the place,” he said, “I came to the realization that measuring everything was financially impossible. Then I lit on the idea that all the kids were impacted by their teachers.”
Searching out sources of error variance in this complex set of data was critical, he explained. “We wanted to be very careful and sure of each step. It’s one thing to make a mistake with one kid, but at this level, a mistake could affect 700,000 children…No one wanted to foul it up.”
As the results stabilized, he was able to explain children’s academic success, measured by achievement tests. His models pointed to the connections to their prior achievement, demographics, classrooms and schools.
One of the powerful applications of the results was finding that some new teachers were able to have the same impact on children as the more experienced teachers. This led to the study of teacher preparation programs and how changes in teachers’ training could impact children’s achievements.
The results have become a source of information in the design and assessment of teacher programs, focusing on 66 of the state’s school districts and all 21 public and private universities.
While able to craft a strategic research design for 300,000 plus school children, it may be his one-to- one work with youngsters, parents and teachers that provided the insight and creative spark that he brought to the project. “It started with a couple of things,” George said. “I was interested in how to do effective treatments and found that the biggest part is compliance. I got interested in doing things that make schools strong, more vibrant, and more effective. As I did that I became interested in the pivotal role of teachers.”
“There is nothing more rewarding than going home that day knowing you have helped a kid, a mom, or a teacher,” he said to the Times. “I was in the clinic in those days, and it was one kid, one parent,” he said. “You could really see it, feel it, it was right there–that you made a difference in someone’s life.” Along with his other duties, he is now also leading a new task force charged with helping the state close achievement gaps and improve student outcomes. Called the “Superintendent’s Delivery Unit” or SDU, the group is working to identify “best practices” and how to estimate the impact on student achievement.
“The state has adopted an ambitious set of goals for student outcomes,” George said. “I’m leading the team that is applying some classic business concepts to the goals.”
His group will support crafting strategic plans to address quality issues, continuous improvement, and other concepts that reflect the growing awareness that business objectives such as quality assurance and accountability can be of benefit to educational systems.
But amid an extremely busy schedule, Dr. George Noell said that he is happy to know that his work is “…going to trickle down and make a difference in a teacher’s or a kid’s life.”
“Louisiana has over 650,000 public school children,” he said. “There are moments when you see how the programs are actually going to impact the kids’ lives. Those are the moments that are most fulfilling.”
But he misses the direct contact. “I’m at the 50,000 foot level now, which is a long way from children. A great struggle some days is that I started out very close to kids and miss that. There is nothing more rewarding that working on behalf of children and adolescents,” he said.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.