A study of the effects of Everyday Mathematics on student achievement of third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students in a large north Texas urban school district (Doctoral dissertation).
Waite, R. D. (2000). Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 9992659).
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examining3,436Students, grades3-5
Everyday Mathematics® Intervention Report - Primary Mathematics
Review Details
Reviewed: November 2015
- Quasi-Experimental Design
- Meets WWC standards with reservations
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Please see the WWC summary of evidence for Everyday Mathematics®.
Findings
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS): Total Math Scale Score |
Everyday Mathematics® vs. Business as Usual |
1998-1999 |
Grades 3-5;
|
63.64 |
59.80 |
No |
-- |
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
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Urban
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Texas
Study Details
Setting
All schools in this study were located in a large urban school district in north Texas.
Study sample
The study sample consisted of third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students. Six schools within one district volunteered to implement the first edition of Everyday Mathematics® during the 1998–99 school year. A comparison group of 12 schools within the same school district was selected. Comparison schools did not use Everyday Mathematics® during the 1998–99 school year. The study matched the 12 comparison schools to the intervention schools based on ethnicity, socioeconomic status (measured by the proportion of students that participated in the free or reduced-price lunch program), and prior student mathematics scores (measured by the Iowa Test of Basic Skills [ITBS]). The analytic sample consisted of 732 students in 52 classes among the six intervention schools and 2,704 students among the 12 comparison schools (the number of classes in the comparison schools was not provided by the author).
Intervention Group
The six intervention schools used Everyday Mathematics® for the full 1998–99 school year. Everyday Mathematics® introduces mathematical concepts in a variety of ways during the school year and consists of daily lesson plans that usually begin with a Math Message, which is the focus of the lesson, and combines teacher-led discussions and hands-on group and individual activities during the class. In addition to the class components, students also keep a journal in which they write about mathematical concepts and work on homework assignments that are intended to reinforce practical experience with mathematics.
Comparison Group
The comparison group used the district’s adopted textbook, Mathematics in Action, a traditional mathematics curriculum. Mathematics in Action focuses on the systematic understanding of concepts and algorithms in specific lesson plans with an emphasis on practice problems and repetition before new concepts are introduced.
Outcome descriptions
The primary outcome used to measure student mathematics achievement was the Total Math Score from the 1999 Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS), which was administered to students in April 1999. The study reports an overall score and three subtest scores on the TAAS that measure concepts, operations, and problem solving. In addition, for the overall score, the author reports subgroup results for students who were classified as Black, Hispanic, White, male, female, of low socioeconomic status, and other socioeconomic status.4 The mean national percentage ranking of student scores on the math section of the ITBS was used as a pretest. The ITBS pretest was administered to students in April 1998. For a more detailed description of the TAAS outcome measure, see Appendix B.
Support for implementation
Teachers and administrators in the intervention schools received 40 hours of initial training on Everyday Mathematics®, as recommended by the publisher. Teachers also received the curriculum’s Teacher’s Resource Package, which includes a variety of materials that help teachers successfully implement the program, such as the Teacher’s Manual and Lesson Guide, a teacher’s Resource Book, instructions on creating home and school links, and a materials kit that contains manipulatives (e.g., dice, rulers) used in the lessons.
An indicator of the effect of the intervention, the improvement index can be interpreted as the expected change in percentile rank for an average comparison group student if that student had received the intervention.
For more, please see the WWC Glossary entry for improvement index.
An outcome is the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are attained as a result of an activity. An outcome measures is an instrument, device, or method that provides data on the outcome.
A finding that is included in the effectiveness rating. Excluded findings may include subgroups and subscales.
The sample on which the analysis was conducted.
The group to which the intervention group is compared, which may include a different intervention, business as usual, or no services.
The timing of the post-intervention outcome measure.
The number of students included in the analysis.
The mean score of students in the intervention group.
The mean score of students in the comparison group.
The WWC considers a finding to be statistically significant if the likelihood that the finding is due to chance alone, rather than a real difference, is less than five percent.
The WWC reviews studies for WWC products, Department of Education grant competitions, and IES performance measures.
The name and version of the document used to guide the review of the study.
The version of the WWC design standards used to guide the review of the study.
The result of the WWC assessment of the study. The rating is based on the strength of evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention. Studies are given a rating of Meets WWC Design Standards without Reservations, Meets WWC Design Standards with Reservations, or >Does Not Meet WWC Design Standards.
A related publication that was reviewed alongside the main study of interest.
Study findings for this report.
Based on the direction, magnitude, and statistical significance of the findings within a domain, the WWC characterizes the findings from a study as one of the following: statistically significant positive effects, substantively important positive effects, indeterminate effects, substantively important negative effects, and statistically significant negative effects. For more, please see the WWC Handbook.
The WWC may review studies for multiple purposes, including different reports and re-reviews using updated standards. Each WWC review of this study is listed in the dropdown. Details on any review may be accessed by making a selection from the drop down list.
Tier 1 Strong indicates strong evidence of effectiveness,
Tier 2 Moderate indicates moderate evidence of effectiveness, and
Tier 3 Promising indicates promising evidence of effectiveness,
as defined in the
non-regulatory guidance for ESSA
and the regulations for ED discretionary grants (EDGAR Part 77).