Search Results: (16-30 of 76 records)
|WWC TRSCL12||The Center for Learning Technologies in Urban Schools (LeTUS) Program
The LeTUS program is a three-year, project-based, technology-integrated middle school science curriculum for grades 6-8. Topics include global warming, water and air quality, force and motion, communicable diseases, and ecological systems. Students conduct scientific investigations and use interactive computer software, scientific visualization, and graphing tools. The WWC identified five studies of the LeTUS program for middle school students that were published or released between 1990 and 2011, but none meet WWC evidence standards. The WWC is unable to draw any conclusions based on research about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the program on middle school students. Additional research is needed to determine if the LeTUS program is effective for these students.
|WWC TRSTE12||Technology Enhanced Elementary and Middle School Science (TEEMSS)
TEEMSS is a physical science curriculum for grades 3–8 that utilizes computers, sensors, and interactive models to support investigations of real-world phenomena. Through 15 inquiry-based instructional units, students interact with handheld computers, gather and analyze data, and formulate ideas for further exploration. The WWC reviewed three studies that investigated the effects of TEEMSS on elementary and middle school students. One study, a quasi-experimental design, meets WWC evidence standards with reservations. The study includes 181 students in grades 3 and 4 in elementary schools in three states. Based on this study, the WWC found TEEMSS to have potentially positive effects on general science achievement for elementary school students.
|WWC QRMAA0327||WWC Quick Review of the Report "Access to Algebra I: The Effects of Online Mathematics for Grade 8 Students"
Among the students identified by school staff as eligible for the program, those attending schools that offered the online Algebra I course scored higher on the assessment of algebra skills than those attending schools without the program. The estimated effect size of 0.41 is roughly equivalent to moving a student from the 50th to the 66th percentile in algebra achievement. No statistically significant difference existed between the two groups in nonalgebra, general mathematics achievement.
|REL 20124002||Effects of Making Sense of SCIENCE Professional Development on the Achievement of Middle School Students, Including English Language Learners
The study, Effects of Making Sense of SCIENCE professional development on the achievement of middle school students, including English language learners, found that grade 8 teachers who received the professional development had greater content knowledge about force and motion and confidence in teaching force and motion than teachers who did not receive the professional development. However, there was no impact of the program on students’ physical science test scores.
The Making Sense of Science Force and Motion course for teachers incorporates physical science content, analysis of student work and thinking, and classroom instruction to develop teacher expertise about force and motion and science instruction. The course emphasizes inquiry-based instruction practices.
|WWC QRMS0212||WWC Quick Review of the Report “Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Impact Study: Findings After the Second Year of Implementation”
This randomized controlled trial examined whether a professional development program for seventh grade mathematics teachers improved the teachers' knowledge of rational number topics and the performance of their students on a rational number test.
|WWC IRLPA12||Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies
Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies was found to have potentially positive effects on comprehension for adolescent learners.
|WWC IRSNIY11||The Incredible Years
The Incredible Years is a program that focuses on building the social and emotional skills of children ages 0–12 who are classified as having an emotional disturbance or those at risk for classification. Lessons cover recognizing and understanding feelings, getting along with friends, anger management, problem solving, and behavior at school. Parents are given training on how to provide positive discipline, promote learning and development, and stay involved in children’s lives at school. The WWC reviewed 81 studies that investigated the effects of The Incredible Years on children. One study meets WWC evidence standards, a randomized controlled trial that included 51 students at the University of Washington Parenting Clinic. Based on this study, the WWC found The Incredible Years to have potentially positive effects on external behavior and social outcomes for children classified as having an emotional disturbance.
|WWC IRLST11||Student Team Reading and Writing
Student Team Reading and Writing is an integrated approach to reading and language arts for young adolescents. The program includes cooperative learning classroom processes that integrate reading, writing, and language arts instruction combined with a literature anthology for high-interest reading material. The WWC reviewed four studies that investigated the effects of student team reading and writing programs on improving adolescent literacy. Two studies were quasi-experimental designs that meet WWC evidence standards with reservations. The first study examined 3,986 students in five schools, and the second looked at 1,223 students in six schools in urban districts in Maryland. Based on these two studies, the WWC found student team reading and writing programs to have potentially positive effects on comprehension and no discernible effects on general literacy achievement for adolescent learners.
|WWC IRHSMUC11||University of Chicago School Mathematics Project 6-12 Curriculum.
The University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP) 6-12 Curriculum is a series of year-long courses-(1) Transition Mathematics; (2) Algebra; (3) Geometry; (4) Advanced Algebra; (5) Functions, Statistics, and Trigonometry; and (6) Precalculus and Discrete Mathematics-emphasizing problem solving, real-world applications, and the use of technology. The program is designed to allow schools to offer the appropriate math courses to students, independent of grade level. The WWC reviewed 20 studies that investigate the effects of UCSMP on high school students. Two studies meet WWC evidence standards with reservations and included 251 high school students in five schools in five districts. Based on these two studies, the WWC considers UCSMP to have potentially positive effects on mathematics achievement for high school students.
|NCEE 20104010||Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Impact Study: findings After the First Year of Implementation
The restricted-use file for this study will be available in the winter of 2011 and contains data for the 2007-08 school year including teacher mathematics knowledge test information, teacher surveys, classroom observations of teacher practices, and student demographic data and math achievement for seventh graders.
|WWC 20104039||Developing Effective Fractions Instruction for Kindergarten Through 8th Grade
A high percentage of U.S. students lack conceptual understanding of fractions, even after studying fractions for several years. The Practice Guide "Developing Effective Fractions Instruction for Kindergarten Through 8th Grade" offers evidence-based recommendations for improving students' understanding of fractions. The guide is based on an extensive review of the literature and is designed for educators who work with students in kindergarten through 8th grade, when almost all instruction in fractions takes place.
The guide addresses early developing concepts of fractions, computation with fractions, and the more advanced topics of ratio, rate, and proportion. The panel's recommendations reflect the perspective that conceptual understanding of fractions is essential for students to learn about the topic, to remember what they learned, and to apply this knowledge to solve problems involving fractions. The guide provides detailed information for implementing five recommendations: (1) Build on students' informal understanding of sharing and proportionality to develop initial fraction concepts; (2) Help students recognize that fractions are numbers and that they expand the number system beyond whole numbers. Use number lines as a central representational tool in teaching this and other fraction concepts from the early grades onward; (3) Help students understand why procedures for computations with fractions make sense; (4) Develop students' conceptual understanding of strategies for solving ratio, rate, and proportion problems before exposing them to cross-multiplication as a procedure to use to solve such problems; and (5) Professional development programs should place a high priority on improving teachers’ understanding of fractions and of how to teach them. Each recommendation includes a summary of supporting research, implementation strategies, and potential roadblocks and solutions.
|WWC QRKIPP0910||Student Characteristics and Achievement in 22 KIPP Middle Schools
The WWC quick review of the report "Student Characteristics and Achievement in 22 KIPP Middle Schools" reviews a study that examined the effect of charter schools in the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) network on reading and mathematics achievement in 5th- through 8th-grade students. The study analyzed scores on state assessments for more than 5,600 students who attended 22 KIPP middle schools in nine states and Washington, DC, in the 2000s. Students were followed for one to four years, depending on data availability, and the study standardized all test scores so they could be compared across states. Study authors found that students in the 22 KIPP charter middle schools examined had higher reading and math test scores, on average, than similar students in public middle schools. The WWC rated the research described in this report as meets WWC evidence standards with reservations because, although the study matched KIPP students to comparison students based on test scores and demographic characteristics, it is possible that differences existed between the two groups that were not accounted for in the analysis; these differences could have influenced achievement growth. In addition, the study examined each of the 22 KIPP schools separately, so cross-school conclusions should be interpreted with caution.
|WWC IRESMAM10||Accelerated Math
Accelerated Math is a software tool used to customize assignments and monitor progress in mathematics for students in grades 1112. Based on its review of the research, the WWC found Accelerated Math to have mixed effects for math achievement for elementary school students.
|WWC IRALBC10||Book Clubs
Book clubs provide a reading framework designed to supplement or organize regular classroom reading instruction for students in grades K-8. No studies of book clubs that fall within the scope of the Adolescent Literacy review protocol meet WWC evidence standards. Therefore, at this time the WWC is unable to draw any conclusions based on research about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of book clubs on adolescent learners.
|WWC IRALRT10||Reciprocal Teaching
Reciprocal teaching is an interactive instructional practice that aims to improve students' reading comprehension by teaching strategies to obtain meaning from a text. Based on its review of the research, the WWC found reciprocal teaching to have mixed effects on comprehension for adolescent learners.
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