Online Mathematics Homework Increases Student Achievement
Roschelle, Jeremy; Feng, Mingyu; Murphy, Robert F.; Mason, Craig A. (2016). AERA Open, v2 n4. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1194398
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examining2,728Students, grade7
Distance Learning Rapid Review
Review Details
Reviewed: March 2019
- Distance Learning Rapid Review (findings for ASSISTments)
- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Meets WWC standards without reservations because it is a randomized controlled trial with low attrition.
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
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Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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TerraNova common Core assessment mathematics test |
ASSISTments vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Full sample;
|
691.22 |
682.66 |
Yes |
|
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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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Female: 51%
Male: 49% -
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Maine
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Race Asian 2% Black 2% Other or unknown 2% White 93% -
Ethnicity Hispanic 2% Not Hispanic or Latino 98%
Study Details
Setting
The study took place in seventh-grade classrooms in 43 schools in Maine (p. 4).
Study sample
The sample was about half (49 percent) male, and primarily white (93 percent). Black, Hispanic, and Asian students each made up about 2 percent of the sample. About 39 percent of the sample qualified for the free- or reduced-price meal program, while 12 percent were special education students (p. 5).
Intervention Group
The intervention tested was ASSISTments, a web-based platform for mathematics homework and related teacher training. The web-based platform is used by students to complete their math homework. It provides students with feedback and guidance, and provides teachers with reports on student performance and commonly missed questions. For this study, the ASSISTments software was loaded with all homework problems from all textbooks in use among intervention schools, as well as math extension activities called "skill builders" covering more than 300 topics appropriate to seventh grade math (pp. 2-4).
Comparison Group
The comparison condition was business-as-usual mathematics homework practices (p. 5).
Support for implementation
Teachers received professional development in using ASSISTments that covered practices such as encouraging students to correct mistakes on questions they missed, reviewing correct solution methods for the problems that students struggled with, and talking about commonly missed questions. Teachers also had one year to learn ASSISTments before delivering it to students in the study (pp. 3, 5).
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.
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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.
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Study findings for this report.
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Tier 2 Moderate indicates moderate evidence of effectiveness, and
Tier 3 Promising indicates promising evidence of effectiveness,
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non-regulatory guidance for ESSA
and the regulations for ED discretionary grants (EDGAR Part 77).