Generation YES

GenYES Proven Effective as Technology Professional Development Model

Ninth Year of Research Data Released

Olympia, Washington, October 19, 2005 - The Northwest Regional Education Laboratory (NWREL) has released results of their ninth annual study on the GenYESTM technology professional development model. The study demonstrates that teachers who work with GenYES students use technology more in their classrooms and attribute that change directly to the GenYES process. GenYES supports teacher technology professional development by providing student partners who help teachers use technology in classroom lessons to improve instruction.

GenYES is one of three student-centered technology support programs offered by the Generation YES® Corporation of Olympia, Washington.

The new NWREL study provides longitudinal data from nine years of GenYES research as well as detailed results from 215 schools over the 2004-05 school year. Within these schools, NWREL randomly sampled 2,052 students and 1,008 teachers and examined 1,698 projects created by these student-teacher collaborators.

GenYES assists with the effective integration of technology in teaching and learning, while engaging students in grades 4 to 12 in constructive, meaningful activities that support teachers and other members of the school community. For example, as 25 GenYES students learn technology and interpersonal skills, they partner with 25 teachers throughout the school in every subject area. These teacher/student teams develop lessons and projects that are highly infused with modern technology and aligned to curriculum standards. This is an innovative and cost-effective way for teachers to achieve their technology professional development goals and improve classroom instruction.

Research Findings

The Northwest Regional Education Laboratory (NWREL) summarized the 2004-05 research:

“Student and partner teacher ratings of the success and impact of the program, their experience working with each other, the curriculum resources and online tools provided by Generation YES all remained extremely positive.”
“Student projects continue to be complex, in the sense that projects are likely to include multiple components (websites, presentations, coaching or instruction of teachers or other students, etc.).“

NWREL found specific results from the past school year, including:

98% of teachers said GenYES would change the way they present class lessons in the future.
98% of teachers said that GenYES and learning from students is a good method of providing professional development.
95% of the teachers indicated their students learned more content as a result of the GenYES project.
48% of the teachers said they now use technology more as a result of GenYES (51% said they use the same amount of technology as before).
96% of the teachers indicated the project produced by GenYES student was of high quality.
95% of the teachers said they would use what the GenYES student created in future classes.
94% of teachers indicated that as a result of GenYES they would continue to rebuild lessons utilizing more technology.

Research Conclusions

The NWREL report concluded that over a nine-year period. “The high quality of these products and services has been not just maintained but further improved.”

Furthermore:

The partner-teachers give high ratings to the value of these projects as professional development, and these ratings improved during 2004-2005.
Teachers were more likely this year to report that their personal use of computers and their integration of technology in classroom work with students had increased as a result of participating in GenYES.
Similarly, they were more likely to report that GenYES had increased their knowledge and comfort level with personal and professional uses of technology.

This research once again demonstrates the impact that GenYES students can have in improving their own schools. GenYES solves the problem of overwhelmed teachers struggling to use technology effectively in their teaching.

The entire NWREL GenYES evaluation is available at:

https://www.genyes.com/programs/genyes/reports/natsurveydata0405

Generation YES Corp.

Generation YES works with schools all around the world to plan, implement and enhance student technology programs through consulting, innovative curriculum and research-based support services. (https://www.genyes.com)

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For more information:
Sylvia Martinez, Generation YES
(888) 941-4369 x107
[email protected]

Related Sites:

Press Release site:https://genyes.com/news/pressreleases/101905

Generation YES: https://www.genyes.com

Northwest Educational Labs: https://www.nwrel.org/

GenYES program research and evaluation studies: https://www.genyes.com/programs/genyes/research

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