Martine van der Pluijm

99 How can teachers build partnerships? Summative evaluation This research is a summative evaluation of the AHL design, with multiple cases (i.e., teachers) (Yin, 2018). This study examined teachers’ abilities to reliably convey the content of the program as intended and evaluates how AHL contributes to sustained professional behavior of teachers to build SFPs supporting children’s oral language development. This study evaluates how AHL contributes to the professional behavior of teachers and to the formation of SFPs to support children’s oral language development. The main research question of this study is: To what extent does AHL contribute to teachers’ sustained use of the seven steps to improve SFPs that support children’s oral language development? To answer this central question, we formulated three subquestions: 1. Do teachers adhere to the seven AHL steps? 2. Does teachers’ adherence to the seven AHL steps improve from pretest to posttest, and is there a difference in gain for parents with different educational levels? 3. To what extent do teachers perceive that the use of the seven AHL steps contributes to their personal goals as a teacher and to the sustained use of AHL? METHOD Participants We targeted primary schools in disadvantaged areas of Rotterdam (the Netherlands) with a high percentage of lower-educated families. Prioritizing the collaboration with lower-educated parents as a key activity for at least one year was an additional criterion for participation. We contacted teachers and school leaders that represented their school at conferences on SFPs. If schools were interested, we informed them about the objectives and conditions of our research. One of the conditions was that each school should appoint at least two preschool teachers (pupils aged 3), two kindergarten teachers (pupils aged 4 to 6), or two first grade teachers (pupils aged 6 to 7). These are important periods for children’s language acquisition. Teachers were requested to join the research activities for at least one year. Seven schools agreed with our objectives and met our conditions, and were invited to participate. The study took place from summer 2014 to summer 2015. Four schools were already involved in pilot research to develop the AHL program. Three preschool teachers, eight kindergarten teachers, and three first grade teachers were involved. All teachers were female and between 20 and 60 years of age. Eleven teachers were born in the Netherlands, two in Turkey, and one in Surinam. All teachers had attained at least a bachelor’s degree.