The effect of the teacher training program Heart and Soul, a lesson design and delivery framework, on fifth grade mathematics and reading test scores

The Heart and Soul Training was designed as a professional development opportunity to assist teachers in their ability to design and deliver standards-based lessons. The purpose of this retrospective, quantitative study was to address a gap in the literature as it relates to the lack of study on the Heart and Soul Training Framework. This study compared the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test mathematics and language arts mean test scores between students in 3 fifth grade classrooms whose teachers had attended the HST professional development training, forming the experimental group, with students in 3 fifth grade classrooms whose teachers did not attend the HST training, forming the control group. Baseline student mean test scores were gathered from the control group during the 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 school years. This baseline was compared to student mean test scores that were gathered during the same years in the experimental school, with the Heart and Soul Training being conducted in between school years. A 2x2 ANOVA determined that there was no significant difference in the mean student test scores between the 2 groups in 2006/2007. It also demonstrated that in 2007/2008, the control group showed an increase in test scores while the experimental group scores decreased. These determinations lead to the examination of what could have caused this detrimental effect on student achievement in the experimental school. The results can facilitate social change by providing a way to assess professional development programs to determine their effectiveness on student achievement and add to researched strategies that impact students on a daily basis.