Round 8: Top 16 Educational Software
Program description. “In the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, Congress called for a rigorous study of the effectiveness of educational technology for improving student academic achievement… In fall 2003, developers and vendors of educational technology products responded to a public invitation and submitted products for possible inclusion in the national study. [Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.] staff selected 40 of the 160 submissions for further review by two panels of outside experts, one for reading products and one for math products… In January 2004, [the U.S. Department of Education] considered the panel’s recommendations and selected 16 products for the study. In selecting products, [the U.S. Department of Education] grouped them into four areas:
(1) early reading (first grade),
(2) reading comprehension (fourth grade),
(3) pre-algebra (sixth grade), and
(4) algebra (ninth grade).
The products ranged widely in their instructional approaches and how long they had been in use. In general, however, the criteria weighted the selection towards products that had evidence of effectiveness from previous research, or, for newer products, evidence that their designs were based on approaches found to be effective by research. Twelve of the 16 products had received awards or been nominated for awards (some as recently as 2006 [the preceding year]) by trade associations, media, teachers, or parents.”
Do you think that the educational software products had a good effect (i.e., improved test scores), bad effect (i.e., lowered test scores), or no effect?
(1) early reading (first grade),
(2) reading comprehension (fourth grade),
(3) pre-algebra (sixth grade), and
(4) algebra (ninth grade).
The products ranged widely in their instructional approaches and how long they had been in use. In general, however, the criteria weighted the selection towards products that had evidence of effectiveness from previous research, or, for newer products, evidence that their designs were based on approaches found to be effective by research. Twelve of the 16 products had received awards or been nominated for awards (some as recently as 2006 [the preceding year]) by trade associations, media, teachers, or parents.”
Do you think that the educational software products had a good effect (i.e., improved test scores), bad effect (i.e., lowered test scores), or no effect?