Banner Image: Students at The Wooden Floor in Santa, Ana, California take a survey as part of the organization's 10-year longitudinal study.
case studies The Centers for Research on Creativity offers customized research services on a per client basis. We chose the following case studies as they are especially unique in the ways that they've engaged CRoC as their evaluation partner.
The Wooden Floor - Santa Ana, CA Dance is the foundation of this vital community organization, based in Santa Ana, California. When combined with in-house academic, college preparatory, and family support services, The Wooden Floor provides a solid platform for advancement and success. For ten consecutive years, 100 percent of their student graduates do what only about 30 percent of their socioeconomic peers have done—finish high school on time and enroll in higher education. Still, they needed solid evidence to support and enhance what they knew was working so well.
For one year, CRoC worked collaboratively with The Wooden Floor's executive and artistic management to design a customized assessment instrument that would be used to collect student status and outcome data and reflect student development during and after participation at The Wooden Floor. The result was one survey instrument, administered every other year over a 10-year period, that is flexible enough for all grade levels (3 - 12) and comprehensive enough to measure educational attainment, college success, employment experience, achievement of young adult goals, plus cognitive, emotional, and social developments for children and youth. Baseline results were collected in 2014. In 2016, CRoC will collect the second data panel to begin the longitudinal aspect of the study. Funding for the assessment instrument was partially and generously provided to The Wooden Floor by the James Irvine Foundation, under the Arts Regional Initiative Grant (2009-2012).
MINDPOP - Austin, TX MINDPOP's mission is to build communities where every student achieves through creative learning. Even in the award-winning Austin Independent School District, this simple and elegantly stated mission is a difficult undertaking. To bolster their ranks, MINDPOP joined The Creative Learning Initiative, which includes Austin ISD, the City of Austin, and over 40 arts and cultural organizations dedicated to student success through an arts-rich education. The Initiative partners believe that "all students should have access to the powerful benefits of arts-rich schools that foster innovation, imagination, inquiry, hard work and community. Their goal is to create "a 10-year plan that values Equity & Access, Quality, Student Impact and Sustainability so that, over time, Austin ISD has a well coordinated, well researched approach to student achievement and student success using the arts and creative learning." Bravo! We were thrilled to connect with MINDPOP in March of 2015 and quickly embarked on piloting the Next Generation Creativity Survey in a sample group of over 600 students (50% ELL students). Administered in pre- and post-format, the NGCS will help the Initiative Partners to determine next steps in designing a research plan to evaluate the impact of their efforts on student learning. CRoC worked with MINDPOP to meet their budget, including training their onsite staff and partners, and graduate students to administer and score portions of the Next Generation Creativity Survey.
Tree People - Beverly Hills, CA This thriving public benefit organization works with communities and policymakers to grow a green and climate-resilient Los Angeles, addressing the health of the tree canopy, soil, and local water in Los Angeles County. One of their most interactive projects is Generation Earth, an after-school, service learning program that includes professional development for teachers and workshops for teenaged students, to enrich their learning, teach them about environmental issues, such as clean water, pollution, and recycling, and to engage them as environmental problem solvers. CRoC works with Generation Earth staff to design surveys, focus groups, and interviews for teachers and students to evaluate the program's effectiveness.