MATHia: A Digital Learning Platform Supporting Core and Supplemental Instruction in Middle and High School Mathematics

The major aim of this project is to integrate MATHia with UpGrade, an open-source platform that supports fair and rigorous randomized field trials that compare innovative practices with current approaches. The team is particularly interested in supporting field trials that promote equity, provide students with the feedback and motivation they need to succeed, and provide insights to teachers to better guide students in their learning process. In the later years of this project, the team will collaborate with education researchers, public school districts, and the Network Lead to conduct a series of field studies that will help to revise and test approaches to mathematics instruction that work with real students in real classes.

This work will result in improved instructional, motivational, and teacher supports in the MATHia software as well as generalizable principles for improving mathematics outcomes that apply to instructional materials and approaches, regardless of whether they are implemented through software. Results will include improvements to UpGrade, thereby enabling educational software developers and researchers to more easily determine the impact of their design choices on student outcomes.