Cohort 7
Road to Graduation
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Agenda
1
Gut Check (5 min.)
2
Timeline (10 min)
3
Writing for Impact(75 min.)
4
Housekeeping (10 min.)
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Gut Check
What do you need to finalize your capstone project?
How might you get it?
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Remaining Steps on Your Capstone Journey
4
3
2
1
Convening
Present your capstone
Draft
Submit a draft impact
story and poster.
Graduation
Lead 40-minute
roundtable on your
Final Capstone
Incorporate feedback
from Fellows and SDP
staff and submit final.
capstone work.
work at convening.
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Graduation
Poster + Pitch + Presentation
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Poster
Each fellow will be responsible for
creating one poster to serve as a visual aid
in place of a more technical presentation.
Poster should include:
•
•
•
•
Name, Agency, Title
Problem Statement
Synopsis
Detailed charts and graphs, artifacts,
evidence
• Impact
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Option 1: Title
Fellow 1 Name, Agency
Problem Statement
Diagram 1
[Insert
visual
here]
Diagram 2
[Insert
visual
here]
[Key finding/explanation of the
above visuals] List highlights of
results. Refer to your initial list
of questions (slide 1), and list
key results/findings. These
should be your latest findings,
but do not have to be final
results.
Diagram 3
[Key finding/explanation of the
visuals] List highlights of results.
Refer to your initial list of questions
(slide 1), and list key
results/findings. These should be
your latest findings, but do not
have to be final results.
[Insert
visual
here]
[Key finding/explanation of the
visuals] List highlights of results.
Refer to your initial list of questions
(slide 1), and list key
results/findings. These should be
your latest findings, but do not
have to be final results.
Lessons Learned and Next Steps
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Option 2: Title
Fellow 1 Name, Agency
Case Study
Fellow
Agency Name, State location
[Insert agency
logo (hi-res
image) here]
[insert headshot
here]
Problem Statement
About Us: [e.g. mission statement, stats e.g. # of students, schools, employees, student demographics, etc.]
Research Questions:
•
•
Project Scope:
Artifact/Visual
Lessons Learned and Next Steps
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Presentation
• Just you
• 40 minutes
• A detailed poster
• Artifacts
• A chance to show off, collect
feedback, dig in deep
Identify Next
Steps and Fixes
(5)

Capstone
Rounds
Table-led
questions
(15)
Share
Evidence,
Data (10)


Group prereading

Bring Poster,
Artifacts
Discuss the
problem, the
question (10)
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Pitch
Prepare a 1-2 minute overview of your capstone project
• Summarize your work and impact
• Preview the challenges or “meat” of the experience
• Entice people to come to your capstone roundtable
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A More Detailed Timeline
• June 1: Receive Capstone Poster Template
• June 23: Capstone Draft Due (Impact Story + Capstone Deliverable)
• July 1–17: All Fellows Read and Provide Feedback on 2–3 Other
Impact Stories. (More instructions from Rebecca on July 1)
• July 17–18: Lead Capstone Roundtable at Graduation
• August 4: Revised Impact Story Due
• August 18: SDP returns feedback on Impact Story
• September 1: Final Due
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Writing for Impact
Meet Kathleen. She’s awesome.
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Writing for Impact: Overview
1
Five elements of a strong capstone
2
Writer’s toolkit: six strategies
3
(break)
4
Putting our tools to work – small groups
5
Questions
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One Type of Data Story
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Our Kind of Data Story
“While it is well-known that certain charter schools dramatically increase students' standardized
test scores, there is considerably less evidence that these human capital gains persist into
adulthood.
To address this matter, we match three years of lottery data from a high-performing charter high
school to administrative college enrollment records and estimate the effect of winning an
admissions lottery on college matriculation, quality, and persistence.
Seven to nine years after the lottery, we find that lottery winners are 10.0 percentage points more
likely to attend college and 9.5 percentage points more likely to enroll for at least four semesters.
These impacts do not come at the expense of college quality; our estimates are entirely driven by
enrollment at selective, four-year institutions. Finally, we provide non-experimental evidence that
more recent cohorts at other campuses increased enrollment at a similar rate.
Overall, our results suggest that the causal effects of attending a “No Excuses" high school extend
beyond graduation and into early adulthood.”
- Davis, Matthew and Heller, Blake. Abstract from “ ‘No Excuses’ Charter Schools and Enrollment – New Evidence from a High School Network in Chicago.” (2015)
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Ask Yourself: Is my main idea…
• Relevant?
Do readers immediately know why it matters?
• Portable?
Can readers easily tell someone else about it?
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Five Elements of a Great Capstone Report:
• Frame: The reader knows what is at stake.
• Foundation: A simple explanation of the question and data sources.
• Findings: Clear takeaways of what you’ve found out - and an honest
account of what you do and don’t know.
• Familiar: To lay readers, your data should provide a backstory to an
issue or state of affairs that feels or sounds familiar – even if it is
surprising or refutes a common assumption.
• Forward: What is the way forward? What action should the analysis
inspire? (*Even if your work cannot be prescriptive, it should clearly
lay the groundwork and inform a case for action.)
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Our Type of Data Story: Annotated!
“While it is well-known that certain charter schools dramatically
increase students' standardized test scores, there is considerably less
evidence that these human capital gains persist into adulthood.
To address this matter, we match three years of lottery data from a
high-performing charter high school to administrative college
enrollment records and estimate the effect of winning an admissions
lottery on college matriculation, quality, and persistence.
Seven to nine years after the lottery, we find that lottery winners are
10.0 percentage points more likely to attend college and 9.5
percentage points more likely to enroll for at least four semesters.
These impacts do not come at the expense of college quality; our
estimates are entirely driven by enrollment at selective, four-year
institutions. Finally, we provide non-experimental evidence that more
recent cohorts at other campuses increased enrollment at a similar
rate.
Overall, our results suggest that the causal effects of attending a “No
Excuses" high school extend beyond graduation and into early
adulthood.”
Familiar
Frame
Foundation
Findings
Forward
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Putting Elements on the Page
Strong writing starts with clear thinking.
Key questions:
• What do I want to say?
• Who is my audience?
• What do I want them to do with this information?
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Your High-Impact Capstone Toolkit
Six strategies for strong writing.
Yes, just six!
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#1: Know Your Bottom Line
Know what you want to say. And say it right away.
• Start with your conclusion. What did you find out?
• Is your finding relevant and portable?
• Then, provide context and explain your detailed findings in support of
your bottom line.
Don’t ask readers to hunt for a reason to read your capstone.
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Example #1: What’s the bottom line?
“Are teachers' impacts on students' test scores ("value-added") a good measure of their
quality?
This question has sparked debate largely because of disagreement about (1) whether value-added (VA) provides unbiased estimates of
teachers' impacts on student achievement and (2) whether high-VA teachers improve students' long-term outcomes. We address these two
issues by analyzing school district data from grades 3-8 for 2.5 million children linked to tax records on parent characteristics and adult
outcomes.
We find no evidence of bias in VA estimates using previously unobserved parent characteristics and a quasi-experimental research design
based on changes in teaching staff. Students assigned to high-VA teachers are more likely to attend college, attend higher- ranked colleges,
earn higher salaries, live in higher SES neighborhoods, and save more for retirement. They are also less likely to have children as teenagers.
Teachers have large impacts in all grades from 4 to 8.
On average, a one standard deviation improvement in teacher VA in a single grade raises earnings by about 1% at age 28. Replacing a teacher
whose VA is in the bottom 5% with an average teacher would increase the present value of students' lifetime income by more than
$250,000 for the average classroom in our sample.
We conclude that good teachers create substantial economic value and that test score impacts
are helpful in identifying such teachers.”
- Chetty, Raj, Friedman, John N., and Rockoff, Jonah. “The Long-Term Impact of Teachers: Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood.” (2011.)
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Relevant + Portable = SOTU
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#2: Be Concise
(That’s it.)
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Example #2: Which would you read?
Option A: “If you have the opportunity to consider a truncated but stillclear expression, it may be of value to pursue that with regard to
reader attention and wordcount, as opposed to a potentially lessefficient incorporation of many dependent clauses that may obscure,
rather than illuminate, the ultimate information and message you’d like
your readers to have the benefit of after finishing reading your report.”
Option B: “Write short sentences.”
You already skipped over A and read B, right?
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#3: Specify the Stakes
Readers need real-world context to understand your data.
Show them upfront why your findings matter, and to whom.
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Example #3: Graduation rates, in context.
• Research finding: Hispanic high-school students honored by a
national merit program for Hispanics are 1.5 percentage points more
likely to attend a four-year college.
• Introduction to the report: “Over the past decade, Hispanic students have graduated high
school and entered college in growing numbers. Yet the rate of Hispanic college completion has
remained persistently lower than that of whites and other ethnic groups in the United States: only 23
percent of Hispanic adults hold any postsecondary degree compared to 42 percent of all adults.
Helping raise the Hispanic college graduation rate is an urgent goal, given the persistently high rate of
poverty among Hispanic families, growth of the Hispanic population to account for one in five collegeage Americans, and mounting concerns about racial and economic inequality.”
- Smith, Jonathan et al. “Boosting Hispanic College Completion” Education Next. (2017.)
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#4: Anticipate Other Points of View
Protect your work from ad hominem attacks.
Two likely sources:
1. Smart discussion about education topics can get bogged down by
longstanding debates or readers’ pre-existing points of view.
2. In highly politicized environments, readers with an agenda that your
analysis does not serve can easily depict you as a shill for whatever they
perceive to be “the other side.”
What magic shield can protect your analysis from these criticisms…?
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Behold:
The “To be sure…” clause
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Example #4: “To be sure…”
“Teacher quality is the single most important in-school factor to
student success. To be sure, students’ home circumstances have a
major influence on their academic progress. But for schools looking to
improve, a focus on instructional quality is a worthy strategy.”
“This program had a strong impact on student learning. To be sure,
schools and districts contend with competing demands for teachers’
time. But given an ongoing commitment to raising the graduation rate,
such investment may be worthy.”
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#5: Pave the Way
Build on your analysis to explain the past and influence the future.
Past
Future
• Broad stakes and context
• Data and analysis
• Literature review
• Be clear: what worked and what didn’t
• Context: Who could benefit?
• Next steps: policy prescription or
inventory of possible responses
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#6: Use Clear Language
Be brave! Say what you mean, and mean what you say.
• Lose the 50-cent words
• It’s a dog, not a canine.
• Avoid introductory and dependent clauses. Subjects and verbs first!
• In order to ensure that our analysis included all students, we sought data
from a variety of sources to ensure our analysis included all students.
• Avoid the passive voice – active voice. Tell me, who did what.
• The man was bitten by the dog. The dog bit the man.
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Reflection during our break.
These two questions should serve as a backdrop to animate your
thinking and writing.
• What big-picture question is your work trying to illuminate or answer?
• What broad goals are important to you and your organization?
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Groupwork
(15 minutes for group activities)
• Answer the questions assigned to your table
• Record your answers on the paper
• Be ready to present to the group
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Group #1: Know Your Bottom Line
• What is the bottom line for this capstone report? What are the
authors trying to tell readers, and how could this be clear and
portable?
• How did the writers make this clear? Were there missed
opportunities to highlight the bottom line, given the content? If so,
what?
• Summarize the bottom line using the principles we discussed in two
sentences.
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Group #2: Be Concise.
This exercise has two parts:
1. This capstone is 8 pages long. What content would you cut to make
it shorter? Try to trim at least 3 pages without sacrificing the main
point and findings. You can skim and make X marks through
paragraphs in your paper copy. Be ready to explain your selections.
2. Write the shortest, most direct sentence you can that summarizes
the main finding. Extra points if it is short and includes something
about the frame.
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Group #3: Specify the Stakes.
What is the broader context of the challenge and intervention in the
capstone report?
• Write two sentences that make the stakes clear for readers.
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Group #4: Anticipate Other POV.
This exercise has three parts.
1. What are the most likely challenges and criticisms of the analysis
and potential policy suggestions stemming from this report?
2. Please add at least two more to this list of potential criticisms:
• There’s not enough money
• This is asking too much of principals
3. Now, draft a “to be sure” sentence for each. Your goal: honestly
acknowledge these concerns, while also protecting your work from
being sunk by them.
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Group #5: Pave the Way.
Everyone’s a critic – including you! Answer the following:
• What sorts of positive future reforms could the USD report influence?
At what level (classroom, school, district, region, state, federal)?
• How well does the current version of the report make the way
forward clear to those audiences?
• What could authors do or say in order to highlight that possibility
more? Please draft two sentences for either the introduction or
conclusion of the report that advance this goal.
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Questions?
Thanks!
Back to Miriam…
kathcarroll.com
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Housekeeping
• Flights to Graduation –
Check in on your
supervisors!
• Graduation Speaker
Voting
• Send Robert photos from
the past two years
Graduation Speaker Voting
bit.ly/c7gradspeaker
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