A year-long state-wide RCT of the Minnesota Math Corps: Final report to Laura and John Arnold Foundation
ServeMinnesota (2018). Minnesota Math Corps. https://osf.io/7s4bv/.
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examining688Students, grades4-8
Grant Competition
Review Details
Reviewed: November 2021
- Grant Competition (findings for Minnesota Math Corps)
- 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
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
STAR Math Assessment |
Minnesota Math Corps vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Full sample;
|
723.27 |
717.51 |
Yes |
|
|
|
Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA): Math |
Minnesota Math Corps vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Full sample;
|
42.05 |
41.43 |
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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12% English language learners -
Female: 53%
Male: 47% -
Rural, Suburban, Urban
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Minnesota
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Race Asian 8% Black 24% Native American 1% Other or unknown 14% White 53% -
Ethnicity Hispanic 11% Not Hispanic or Latino 89%
Study Details
Setting
The intervention occurred in 20 schools across Minnesota in suburban, urban, and rural communities. The schools included 13 elementary schools, 6 middle schools, and 1 intermediate school.
Study sample
Students in the sample were 53 percent White, 24 percent Black/African American, 11 percent Hispanic, 8 percent Asian, and 4 percent other. Twelve percent of students were identified as English language learners, and 45 percent were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Girls slightly outnumbered boys in the sample.
Intervention Group
Math Corps is a grade-specific supplemental math intervention. In this study, students in the intervention group were scheduled to participate in Math Corps weekly in 90-minute increments. Full-time AmeriCorps members taught the intervention lessons with the students. Lessons targeted conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and word problem solving. The average student participation in Math Corps was approximately 71 minutes per week over 23 weeks.
Comparison Group
The comparison group was a business-as-usual condition. They were allowed to receive other school-based services. About 43 percent of the comparison group students received more than 30 minutes per week of supplemental support for at least 1 month during the year.
Support for implementation
Full-time AmeriCorps volunteers implemented the intervention. Before implementation, the volunteers attended a 3-day training session in late summer and 2 days of training in October and November. The volunteers also received monthly coaching sessions from a school-based coach and a program coach who were trained in the Math Corps program model.
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).