Evaluation of Early Elementary Math Curricula

Contractors: Mathematica Policy Research and SRI International

Background/Research Questions:

The Title I, Part A program is intended to help ensure that all children have the opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach proficiency on challenging state standards and assessments. As the largest federal program supporting elementary and secondary education (funded at $13.9 billion in FY 2008), these resources are targeted primarily to high-poverty districts and schools.

There is very little reliable information available to educators and policy makers about which curricula are most likely to improve math performance. The evaluation will focus on early elementary grades since disadvantaged children are behind their more advantaged peers even before entering elementary school in basic math competencies. The study will examine:

• What is the relative effectiveness of different math curricula on student achievement in early elementary schools?
• Under what conditions is each math curriculum most effective?
• What is the relationship between teacher knowledge of math content and pedagogy and the effectiveness of the math curricula?

Design:

The evaluation questions will be addressed through an experimental design in which schools were randomly assigned to selected math curricula; there is no control group. Math curricula were selected for the evaluation through a competitive process. The math curricula being evaluated are widely-used and representative of different instructional approaches, and are appropriate for funding under Title I. The curricula are Investigations in Number, Data, and Space (Pearson Scott Foresman), Math Expressions (Houghton Mifflin), Saxon Math (Harcourt Achieve), and Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Mathematics (Pearson Scott Foresman). Implementation of the math curricula and their impact on first-grade student achievement was measured in 4 districts and 39 schools during the 2006–07 school year. Programs were implemented in an additional 71 schools and also in second grade during the 2007–08 school year, and are being implemented in third grade during the 2008–09 school year. The impact will be the difference in math achievement between the groups using the selected math curricula.

Duration: 5 years (September 2005–September 2010)

Current Status: A report on first grade results in 4 districts and 39 schools during the 2006–07 school year was cleared by IES peer review on February 3, 2009, and will be released on February 24, 2009.

Key Findings

Math Expressions and Saxon improved student math achievement more than Investigations and Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley. Student achievement for the two more effective curricula is similar, as is the achievement of the two less effective curricula.