Evaluation of a Civil Rights Literacy Curriculum for Middle School Students in Brooklyn
Client: Brooklyn Historical Society and Jacob Burns Film Center | Location: Brooklyn, NY | Funding: National Endowment for the Humanities
We conducted a summative evaluation of Created Equal; Image, Sound, Story, an innovative new curriculum from the Brooklyn Historical Society and Jacob Burns Film Center that combines history and media production to teach middle schoolers about the Civil Rights Movement.
OVERVIEW
In 2017, we were contracted by the Jacob Burns Film Center and the Brooklyn Historical Society to conduct a summative evaluation of Created Equal: Image, Sound, Story, an interdisciplinary curriculum designed to engage middle school students in the history of the Civil Rights Movement and deepen their thinking skills through learning media production techniques.
We explored how the curriculum helped students develop skills in six outcome areas: historical thinking, historical knowledge, media literacy, personal meaning making, media production, and storytelling.
APPROACH
We designed a mixed-methods approach to evaluating students’ and teachers’ experiences with the curriculum that combined qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including:
A written assessment to measure achievement of student outcomes
An assessment of student media projects using a rubric, and
A reflection questionnaire for teachers to complete at the end of four professional development workshops
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
We found that students made improvements in a few key outcome areas through Created Equal, especially in historical knowledge, historical thinking, and in media literacy. Teachers appreciated the skills they learned through Created Equal and were excited about giving their students the opportunity to use technology in the classroom and practice new skills related to media production.
Jacob Burns Film Center and the Brooklyn Historical Society learned that through a partnership each organization could bring their unique assets to the program to provide a unique experience neither could have done without the other.
