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Eric.ed.gov – Investigating the Usage Patterns of Algebra Nation Tutoring Platform

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: We study the usage of a self-guided online tutoring platform called Algebra Nation, which is widely by middle school and high school students who take the End-of-Course Algebra I exam at the end of the school year. This article aims to study how the platform contributes to increasing students’ exam scores by examining users’ logs over a three year period. The platform under consideration was used by more than 36,000 students in the first year, to nearly 67,000 by the third year, thus enabling us to examine how usage patterns evolved and influenced students’ performance at scale. We first identify which Algebra Nation usage factors in conjunction with math overall preparation and socioeconomic factors contribute to the students’ exam performance. Subsequently, we investigate the effect of increased… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Research Report: Impacts of the Use of Study Island Practice and Benchmarks — Reading School District, Pennsylvania

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Study Island is a practice and assessment tool that provides state-standards-aligned opportunities for students to practice their skills. It features a system of continual assessments with immediate feedback to adjust instruction and learning. When educators integrate Study Island into their instructional practices, it acts as a formative, ongoing assessment tool that provides students with a platform to practice or demonstrate their knowledge of taught standards. This approach reflects the elements of formative assessments as a process for monitoring progress and adjusting instruction. Research on formative assessment and progress-monitoring practices has demonstrated positive outcomes for student achievement (Bangert-Drowns, Kulik, & Kulik, 1991; Black & Wiliam, 1998; Fuchs & Fuchs, 1986; January et al., 2018; Stecker, Lembke, & Foegen, 2008; Stiggins, 1999; Van Norman, Nelson, & Parker, 2016; Wolf,… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Do School Districts Get What They Pay for? Predicting Teacher Effectiveness by College Selectivity, Experience, Etc. Program on Education Policy and Governance Working Papers Series. PEPG 10-08

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Holding a college major in education is not correlated with effectiveness in elementary and middle school classrooms, regardless of the university at which the major was earned. Teachers do become more effective with a few years of teaching experience, but (except in elementary reading) no gains–and some declines–in effectiveness appear in the second decade after a teacher has begun teaching. These and other results are obtained from estimations using value-added models that control for student characteristics as well as school and (where appropriate teacher) fixed effects that estimate teacher effectiveness in reading and math for Florida students in 4th through 8th grades for six school years, 2001-02 through 2006-07. The findings suggest that teacher selection and compensation policies are in need of revision. (Contains 2 figures, 11… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Characteristics of Secondary Students Who Have Intentions to Choose a STEM Major in College: Findings from a Three-Year Study

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study was grounded in the social cognitive career theoretical framework (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). The purpose of this four-year longitudinal study was to examine the factors that may have contributed to students’ motivation to develop STEM interest during secondary school years. The participants in our study were 9th-11th grade high school students from a large K-12 college preparatory charter school system, Harmony Public Schools (HPS) in Texas. We utilized descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses to carry out the study. The results revealed that three-year survey takers’ STEM major interest seemed to decrease steadily each year. Although there was a significant gender gap between males and females in STEM selection in 9th and 10th grade, this difference was not significant at the end of 11th… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Alabama’s Education Report Card, 2009-2010

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In a more consistent and viable manner than ever before, education in Alabama is moving toward its ultimate goal of providing every student with a quality education, thereby preparing them for work, college, and life after high school. Alabama’s graduation rates from 2002 to 2008 increased significantly, tripling the national average increase and ranking fourth in the country. Alabama’s progress in reading continues to prove the state’s reading initiative is effective. Educational assessments clearly show the historic gains Alabama made in reading in 2007 (greatest gains in Reading in America and in the history of the National Assessment of Educational Progress) continue to remain steady. Alabama’s trailblazing distance learning program, ACCESS, remains a spectacle of achievement recognized and reported on by national television programs and newspapers across… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Difficulties Encountered by High School Students in Mathematics

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The aim of this study is to identify whether high school students encounter any difficulties in mathematics and reveal the reasons for such difficulties. The participants of the study, which was a descriptive case study based on qualitative understanding, were a total of 164 students, including 85 students from Anatolian High Schools and 79 students from Science High Schools. Approximately 11% of the participants said they had no difficulties in math, whereas 99% of the students from Anatolian High Schools and 78% of the students from Science High Schools said they had difficulties in mathematic. Their thoughts about the reasons for such difficulties were analyzed by content analysis method considering the type of high school they attended. The findings obtained revealed that the difficulties encountered by the… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Transfer Incentives for High-Performing Teachers: Final Results from a Multisite Randomized Experiment. NCEE 2014-4003

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: One way to improve struggling schools’ access to effective teachers is to use selective transfer incentives. Such incentives offer bonuses for the highest-performing teachers to move into schools serving the most disadvantaged students. In this report, we provide evidence from a randomized experiment that tested whether such a policy intervention can improve student test scores and other outcomes in low-achieving schools. The intervention, known to participants as the Talent Transfer Initiative (TTI), was implemented in 10 school districts in seven states. The highest-performing teachers in each district–those who ranked in roughly the top 20 percent within their subject and grade span in terms of raising student achievement year after year (an approach known as value added)–were identified. These teachers were offered $20,000, paid in installments over a… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – A Research of the Effect of Attitude, Achievement, and Gender on Mathematic Education

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Recent studies in math education focus on differences between behaviors and performances of male and female students. In this study, achievement and attitudes of middle school students to math were described in terms of gender and grade differences. The aim of this study is to determine whether any differences exist between female and male students’ attitudes and successes of middle school toward mathematics. This research was designed as a descriptive research. Students (6th, 7th, and 8th grades) were registered to “Attitude Survey toward Mathematics.” This survey is consisted of two parts. In the first part, there are demographic questions. The second part is 5-Likert type survey which is intended to learn students’ attitudes toward mathematics. Secondly, in order to determine students’ achievements from mathematics, their grades and… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – The Gateway to the Profession: Assessing Teacher Preparation Programs Based on Student Achievement. Working Paper 65

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: With teacher quality repeatedly cited as the most important “schooling” factor influencing student achievement, there has been increased interest in examining the efficacy of teacher training programs. This paper presents research examining the variation between and impact that individual teacher training institutions in Washington state have on the effectiveness of teachers they train. Using administrative data linking teachers’ initial endorsements to student achievement on state reading and math tests, we find the majority of teacher training programs produce teachers who are no more or less effective than teachers who trained out-of-state. However, we do find a number of cases where there are statistically significant differences between estimates of training program effects for teachers who were credentialed at various in-state programs. These findings are robust to a variety… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – The Impact of High School Mathematics and Science Course Graduation Requirements: School Structural, Academic, and Social Organizational Factors

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Given the policy goals of course graduation requirements (CGRs), this study first tests the hypothesis that CGRs promote academic excellence and equity by both improving student performance (“productivity hypothesis”) and reducing the gap between student groups as defined by academic ability, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (“equality hypothesis”). This study also assesses whether and how schools differ in CGRs’ effects by testing the following hypotheses that CGRs affect student outcomes more positively in schools with (1) higher concentration of advantaged peers (“school structure hypothesis”), (2) greater academic/instructional capacity (“academic organization hypothesis”), and (3) stronger academic norms/climate (“social organization hypothesis”). This study analyzes the data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) that provide the information on high school CGRs in several academic subjects at the school… Continue Reading