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Study Design <br />The purpose of this study was to describe the resources of the Chapel Hill- Carrboro <br />City Schools (CHCCS) and the Orange County Schools (OCS) with a mind to proposing areas <br />where some form of collaboration would enhance the education of all the children in the <br />schools of these towns and this county. In order to accomplish this project, Dr. Madeleine <br />Grumet from the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill <br />(UNC -CH) gathered a research team together to assist in the investigation. <br />The UNC -CH research team agreed to: <br />1. Review materials gathered by districts describing curriculum, extra- <br />curricular programs, teacher recruitment, development, and retention <br />2. Develop questions and secure more information as needed <br />3. Analyze and interpret data <br />4. Draft a report for the Orange County Commissioner's Educational <br />Excellence Work Group that requested the study, and <br />5. Revise the draft report and submit a final version. <br />The research study team, in consultation with the Educational Excellence Work <br />Group members, identified a preliminary set of themes and questions for the study. Those <br />questions are presented below. The original set of questions was then used to frame the <br />data gathering mechanisms to be used. After a review of available data in Summer 2004, <br />the study team believed that it was essential to compile data such that information would <br />allow for school comparisons within and between the two districts. This meant that <br />information needed to be available for individual schools. The study team made every <br />effort to use existing information sources to answer the research questions, rather than <br />collect additional data. To accomplish this, the study team proposed the following sequence <br />in data collection: <br />1 = Documents in hand <br />2 = Web data <br />3 = District data <br />4 = School site visit data <br />5 = Focus group data <br />6 = Individual Interviews <br />Steps one and two were completed in sequence, and then the study team drafted <br />protocols for data collection for school site visit and for central office inquiries. The two <br />school district superintendents reviewed the protocols and prepared their principals for the <br />site visits. Principals received copies of the site -visit protocols and the team visited each <br />of the schools in the two districts. The site visit data were summarized and reviewed by <br />each of the schools for accuracy. The research study team then began organizing the <br />information by thematic questions. <br />CHCCS /OCS Final Report 8 <br />