An Impact and Effectiveness Program Evaluation of NCLB Supplemental Education Services in the Rochester City School District

Supplemental education services (SES) were created within the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 as a strategy to support student achievement by providing tutoring or other instructional support activities from State-approved vendors outside the regular school day. This program evaluation of the Rochester City School District’s SES program in 2005-06 and 2006-07 was framed using the impact evaluation and effectiveness evaluation components of Stufflebeam’s CIPP model. The purpose of the study was to determine who participated in SES and to what extent, and to determine the effectiveness of the participation based on the change in New York State standardized assessment results in mathematics and English/language arts (ELA) for SES participants and SES-eligible non-participants. The methodology combined the use of archived quantitative data for students in grades 3 through 8 with qualitative data derived from two focus group sessions with SES instructors. The standardized means for students receiving SES were compared with SES-eligible non-participants. The overall effect size of +0.09 for mathematics and -0.04 for ELA suggests that SES may be a more effective intervention for students with mathematics deficiencies. Results are disaggregated by gender, grade level, race/ethnicity and prior performance level and recommendations for future study are offered