Abstract

We report on a randomized controlled trial of an intervention that leverages the availability of laptops for all public-school students in the state of Maine. The intervention, called “ASSISTments,” provides feedback to students as they solve mathematics homework problems and automatically prepares reports for teachers about student performance on daily assignments. Teachers received training and coaching on formative assessment. Data was collected from 43 schools, 87 teachers, and 2769 7th grade students. Planned analyses describe use of the intervention, analyze the impact of the intervention on an end-of-year standardized assessment, and explore variables that may moderate or mediate impacts. Findings indicate that students in the schools assigned to use ASSISTments learned more and the impact was greater for students with lower prior mathematics achievement. Although evidence shows that teachers used the intervention to target instruction to students’ needs, the mediating role of this practice was unclear. We also examined the generalizability of the findings and found generalizability to be limited due to the setting in Maine. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed.

摘要

我们报告了一项干预措施的随机对照试验，该试验利用了缅因州所有公立学校学生使用笔记本电脑的可用性。这项名为“ ASSISTments”的干预措施可以在学生解决数学作业问题时向他们提供反馈，并自动为教师准备有关日常作业中学生表现的报告。教师接受了有关形成性评估的培训和指导。数据来自43所学校，87位教师和2769位7年级学生。计划进行的分析描述了干预措施的使用，分析了干预措施对年终标准化评估的影响，并探讨了可能减轻或调节影响的变量。调查结果表明，分配到使用ASSISTments的学校中的学生学到的知识更多，并且对先前数学成绩较低的学生的影响更大。尽管有证据表明教师使用干预措施来针对学生的需求进行教学，但这种做法的中介作用尚不清楚。我们还检查了发现的可推广性，发现可推广性由于缅因州的设置而受到限制。讨论了对政策，实践和未来研究的影响。