Quarterly Report: April - June 2013

PBS Film on Adventist Education. October has been designated as the premier month for the new TV documentary film, The Blueprint: The Story of Adventist Education. During the month it will be shown in selected locations across the North American Division including a screening at the North American Division Year-end Meetings. The start date for the film’s   exclusive run on Public Television is not yet known.
Building Support for Adventist Education Using Agent-Based Stakeholder Modeling (ABSM). CRAE has launched an initiative “Building Support for Adventist Education.” Its purpose is to provide support to conferences that wish to make Adventist Education a priority.  With the Agent-Based Stakeholder Modeling (ABSM) program that includes using ABSM proprietary software, CRAE will assist conferences in gathering data to inform their decision making. The ASBM investigative strategy has been used successfully by over 450 government agencies and private organizations in helping them make decisions in critical situations.

The ABSM program can help conferences 1) describe the educational landscape specific to a conference, 2) identify stakeholder groups, their influence and importance, and their interactions with other groups, 3) identify both strategic opportunities and hindrances, and 4) analyze coalition-building proposals and other necessary data to make decisions. The goal is to provide conferences with the information required 1) to assist conferences in data-informed decision making and 2) to develop a comprehensive strategy to meet their desired educational goals.

Thanks to matching grants from generous donors, Central California and Southeastern California Conferences are currently partnering with CRAE in using ABSM. Central California conference is in Phase 3 and Southeastern California is in Phase 2 of the four-phase process. CRAE now has grants for two more conferences that wish to join the initiative and begin projects in 2014.

Achievement Gap Study. A joint research project of La Sierra University and Notre Dame University is being conducted to assess the academic outcomes of various students in Adventist schools. The investigators are Elissa Kido (LSU), Jerome Thayer (AU), David Sikkink (Notre Dame U), and Edwin Hernandez (Notre Dame U). Utilizing the CognitiveGenesis database, preliminary results indicate that the academic growth of students in SDA schools from all ethnic groups are above the norm.  Controlling for home background is an area for future research.

CRAE Webinar. A series of 10 webinars based on the book, Peril and Promise: Adventist Education at the Crossroads, and presented by chapter authors ended on June 12. The sessions are archived and can be viewed here.

Graduation Rate Research. This is the third year that data are being collected from all NAD secondary schools on what their graduates do the following year. CRAE is investigating how many go on to higher education, technical school, or go into the workforce. The 2012 data show that SDA academies in the NAD have a 96.6 % graduation rate with 92.9% of these students going on to college.

Brochure. The 1-page brochure, Moving Hearts and Minds Upward, is now available in Spanish from AdventSource.

Bookazine. The 16-page bookazine of the same name, Moving Hearts and Minds Upward, is proving to be a popular item. It is now in its third printing and available from AdventSource.

Campmeeting in the Stadium. On May 9 the Greater New York and Northeastern Conferences held a one-day campmeeting in the 15,000-seat Nassau Stadium in Long Island, NY. It was televised on both the Hope and 3ABN TV channels. After the Divine Worship Service, approximately 1,000 people were baptized. Later in the day Elissa Kido spoke on what CognitiveGenesis research has revealed about the advantages of Adventist education. She also showed the trailer promoting the documentary film, The Blueprint: The Story of Adventist Education.

April 16. Appearance on TV channel LLBN’s program, “Christian Connection.”
May 9. NAD Hispanic Advisory Meeting
May 21. NAD Union Directors
May 22. NAD K-12 Education Advisory Committee
June 4. Central California Conference ABSM Interactive Session
June 12. CRAE Webinar “Building Support for Adventist Education: A New Initiative”
June 29. Greater NY and Northeastern Conferences’ NY13 Camp Meeting

Marianne Gilbert: “An Analysis of Spiritual Factors on Academic Achievement in Seventh-day Adventist Schools”

Andy Sandiford: “Differences in Academic Achievement of Students involved in Extracurricular Activities: Band, Choir, Varsity Sports, and Intramural Sports in Grades 6,7,8,9,11 in Seventh-day Adventist Schools in the US and Bermuda”

Deloris Trujillo: “A Factor Analysis of CognitiveGenesis Data Identifying the Characteristics of Adventist Holistic Education Components”

The results of these dissertations have been helpful in providing information for deciding the future direction for several areas of instruction and administration of schools.

Ruth Claros, CRAE’s office manager, has left us for Boonshoft Medical School at Wright State University, Ohio. We wish her Godspeed.