Skip to main content

Breadcrumb

Home arrow_forward_ios Information on IES-Funded Research arrow_forward_ios Multimodal Bilingual Platform and F ...
Home arrow_forward_ios ... arrow_forward_ios Multimodal Bilingual Platform and F ...
Information on IES-Funded Research
Contract Closed

Multimodal Bilingual Platform and Formative Evaluation Dashboard for English Language Learners

NCER
Program: Small Business Innovation Research
Award amount: $900,000
Project director: Cynthia Harrison Barbera
Awardee:
StoryWorld International Corp
Year: 2018
Award period: 2 years (05/10/2018 - 05/09/2020)
Project type:
Phase II Development
Contract number: 91990018C0018

Purpose

In prior research and development, the project team developed Storyworld, a web-based activity with mini-games to support English Learners (EL) in language acquisition. In this project, the team will fully develop and test a formative assessment dashboard that provides teachers with insights into EL student's progress as they use Storyworld. ELs are the fastest-growing student population in U.S. schools, with reports showing that nearly 1 in 10 public school students are ELs and approximately three in four U.S. classrooms include at least one EL. Many teachers remain unprepared for the challenge of helping ELs master both the English language and academic content.

Project Activities

With Phase I funding in 2017, the team developed a Storyworld prototype that presented teachers with a dashboard that displayed results from a reading comprehension activity completed by 30 EL students in grade 1 and 2. At the end of Phase I, researchers completed a pilot study with three teachers. They found that the prototype operated as intended, and that teachers were able to review reports and use the findings to guide face-to-face instruction with students. In Phase II, the team will fully develop the user interfaces beyond reading data, to include listening, speaking, and writing data, and materials to support teacher use of data to guide instruction. After development is complete, the team will carry out a pilot study to examine the usability and feasibility, fidelity of implementation, and the promise of the dashboard to inform teacher insights and guide instruction, and improve EL student's language proficiency. Thirty-six Kindergarten to grade 2 classes with 10 students per class will participate in the pilot study. Half of the classes will be randomly assigned to use Storyworld and the dashboard and the other half assigned to a business-as-usual control. The researchers will compare student pre to post learning using a standardized measure of English language acquisition, the Language Assessment Scales.

People and institutions involved

IES program contact(s)

Edward Metz

Education Research Analyst
NCER

Products and publications

The research team will develop a formative assessment dashboard to present data to teachers on ELs performance after using Storyworld, a web-based product with mini-games to supports language acquisition through activities done simultaneously in the student's native language (e.g., Spanish and Mandarin) and in the target language (e.g., English). Reports will inform teachers of K-2 ELs' progress in across reading, listening, speaking, and writing, and provide recommendations for supporting instruction. The dashboard will present results in the student's native language and in the English, show individual trajectories, and provide class-wide growth patterns.

Project website:

StoryWorld

Related projects

MAP + StoryWorld: A Measurement, Analysis, and Literacy Plan for ELs using StoryWorld's Multilingual and Multimodal Platform

91990024C0008

StoryWorld: Formative Evaluation Dashboard for English Language Learners

EDIES17C00045

Supplemental information

Video Demonstration of the Phase I Prototype: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu0-yI5op5c

Questions about this project?

To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.

 

Tags

Education TechnologyEnglish Learners (EL)Literacy

Share

Icon to link to Facebook social media siteIcon to link to X social media siteIcon to link to LinkedIn social media siteIcon to copy link value

Questions about this project?

To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.

 

You may also like

Zoomed in IES logo
Workshop/Training

Data Science Methods for Digital Learning Platform...

August 18, 2025
Read More
Zoomed in IES logo
Workshop/Training

Data Science for Education (DS4EDU)

April 01, 2025
Read More
Zoomed in IES logo
Request for Applications

Education Research and Development Center Program ...

March 14, 2025
Read More
icon-dot-govicon-https icon-quote