The Urban Advantage: The impact of informal science collaborations on student achievement
Weinstein, M.G & Shiferaw, M. (2017). New York, NY: Steinhardt School of Education, New York University.
-
examining223,775Students, grades6-8
Grant Competition
Review Details
Reviewed: August 2018
- Grant Competition (findings for Urban Advantage (UA))
- Quasi-Experimental Design
- Meets WWC standards with reservations because it uses a quasi-experimental design in which the analytic intervention and comparison groups satisfy the baseline equivalence requirement.
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.
Findings
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
New York State Intermediate Level Science (ILS) Exam (8th grade) |
Urban Advantage (UA) vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Full sample;
|
N/A |
N/A |
Yes |
|
|
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.
-
13% English language learners -
Female: 49%
Male: 51% -
Urban
-
- B
- A
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- I
- H
- J
- K
- L
- P
- M
- N
- O
- Q
- R
- S
- V
- U
- T
- W
- X
- Z
- Y
- a
- h
- i
- b
- d
- e
- f
- c
- g
- j
- k
- l
- m
- n
- o
- p
- q
- r
- s
- t
- u
- v
- x
- w
- y
New York
-
Race Asian 16% Black 27% White 14% -
Ethnicity Hispanic 42% Not Hispanic or Latino 58%
Study Details
Setting
The study sample included 223,775 students in 514 schools who took the Intermediate Level Science (ILS) exam in 8th grade, in a New York City public middle school. In NYC, 41.2% of all students who took the ILS exam were enrolled at a school that offered the Urban Advantage (UA) program, and 54.9% of the science teaching staff at a UA school are UA teachers. The total number of teachers in the sample was 1,717 among the 514 NYC public schools. The authors excluded charter schools and special education-only schools, and excluded teachers and schools with less than 10 students who took the ILS exam. The analyses treated any teachers who ever taught at a UA school as UA teachers.
Study sample
In this sample, more than half of middle school students (54.2%) scored at least proficient on the science exam in 8th grade. About three-fourths of the sample (76.4%) were considered free or reduced price lunch eligible. One third of the sample (33.1%) were taught by a UA teacher. About half (48.6%) of the sample was female, 17% had an Individual Education Plan, and 13% were English Language learners. The largest proportion of students (42%) were Hispanic, 27.1% were Black, 13.9% were White, and 16% were Asian.
Intervention Group
The Urban Advantage (UA) program offers middle schools the opportunity to participate in informal-formal science education partnerships with New York City's informal science education institutions (ISEIs). Within participating schools, teachers can choose to participate in this program which includes intensive professional development, materials for science classrooms, and free access to ISEIs for class trips and independent visits. The authors did not provide specific information on the average number of professional development hours, types of instructional science materials provided, or the average number of class trips and independent visits to participating institutions.
Comparison Group
Teachers in the comparison group did not participate in the Urban Advantage program during the study period.
Support for implementation
The Urban Advantage program in New York City has the support of eight of New York City's leading cultural institutions, including museums, zoos, and botanical gardens. Participating institutions include: the American Museum of National History, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the New York Botanical Garden, the New York Hall of Science, the Queens Botanical Garden, the Staten Island Zoo, the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo, the New York Aquarium, and the New York City Department of Education, with leadership funding from the New York City Council. Supports for implementation include professional development programming, instructional science materials, and free admission to participating institutions.
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).