Group R Action Plans
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Team Name |
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Carnegie Learning - A |
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Team Leader |
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Steve Ritter - sritter@carnegielearning.com |
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Area & Recs |
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Standards of Evidence-Research Policies and Mechanisms 39, 10, 12 |
And
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Team Name |
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Pearson - B |
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Team Leader |
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Marcy Baughman - marcy.baughman@pearson.com |
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Area & Recs |
|
Standards of Evidence-Research Policies and Mechanisms 39, 44 |
Problems with buy-in
Prestige
OK in Ed-sponsored studies, hard with smaller-scale ones
Conflict with AYP
Need to be more inclusive
Politics
Need more implementation data
Intent to treat/communication of results
Categories of studies
State/national databanks
Calder/NAEP/ACT
Large-scale effectiveness
Intent to treat
Silent experiments
Best with technology-based (Google/Amazon)
Smaller efficacy and formative studies
Most important least support
Solutions
Addresses prestige, AYP, inclusiveness, esp. with smaller-scale studies
Funded by IES/administered by multiple organizations (regional labs)
Schools agree to participate in research but approval process for individual experiments
Solutions (2)
Adjust methods to ease burden on schools
Silent experiments, designs with fewer demands from teachers, admins, students
Use intent to treat for policy questions, not pedagogical questions
Clearer communication about study conclusions
Cultural/communication shift
Encourage discussion about research methods, results, encourage sense of obligation to help understand what works
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Team Name |
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National Council of Teachers of Mathematics - B |
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Team Leader |
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Judith Reed - jreed@nctm.org |
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Area & Recs |
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Standards of Evidence-Research Policies and Mechanisms 39, 43 |
Plan
The NCTM Mission clarifies our role to be a public voice of mathematics education, provide vision, leadership and professional development to support teachers in ensuring equitable mathematics learning of the highest quality for all students. A membership organization of around 100,000 members, NCTM has a capacity and expert position to, call for and identify needed research, particularly research linking to practice, and disseminate research needs and results to a wide and varied audience. In recent years NCTM has made linking research and practice a strategic priority of the organization. As part of this priority, NCTM is committed to championing for rigorous research to be done in those areas of immediate concern to practitioners. In August, 2008, NCTM, with NSF funding, brought together researchers and practitioners to map out directions for mathematics education research based on the needs of practitioners. This work will be continued over the next year including the refining and vetting of a resulting document that will elaborate on priority areas where research effort should be focused based on the needs of practitioners. The final document will be sent out to funding agencies, policy groups, research organizations, researcher communities, and practitioners. The document will also become an important part of NCTM's research activities including influencing the Research Briefs and Clips project, the NCTM Research Presession, and NCTM publications.
Work to stimulate national and state policies in support of partnerships between districts/schools and researchers?
Resources
In 2005, NCTM through a Linking Research and Practice Task Force, made connecting research and practice a priority of the Council's activities. As part of the recommendations of this task force, NCTM hired a full-time director of research to coordinate related activities. The Research Briefs and Clips project was developed in which mathematics education researcher were commissioned to synthesize research in response to important and pressing questions of practice. This project has been underway since late 2006 and a collection of briefs and clips are available online on NCTM's website. A second project that begin based on the recommendations of the Linking Research and Practice Task Force was the Research Agenda Project. The goal of this project was to create a list of priority research directions for the field based on the input of practitioners with a focus on their most pressing needs. A second goal of this project is to bring together practitioner communities, research communities, and policy communities to create a sustainable community dedicated to working together to ensure that this research is done. At the present time, we have completed the first portion of this project -- the Research Agenda Conference, held in August 2008, we brought together practitioners and researchers to begin this synergistic work. In the next phase of the project, we will expand that community to include policy people and researchers from outside of mathematics education to help refine a document that we see has having a substantial impact on mathematics education research.
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Team Name |
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ACT |
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Team Leader |
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Ken Mullen - ken.mullen@act.org |
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Area & Recs |
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Standards of Evidence-Research Policies and Mechanisms 39, 43, 45 |
ACT is working to increase the number of students who are prepared to be successful in college courses and work, and we welcome all who share this goal to join us in the journey. ACT tests are objective measures of college readiness. The ACT College Readiness Standards provide an empirical map of the skills that are important for success in college. Many teachers have been using these in the classroom to ensure that their students have adequate preparation. ACT plans to formally look at the ways educators use the College Readiness Standards to prepare students, and the effects that incorporating these clear-cut standards have on student achievement by collaborating with schools and states. We believe that the ACT College Readiness Standards and College Readiness Benchmarks can be a connecting theme among many of the projects inspired by the NMAP recommendations. The deep connections to real data make high quality research possible. ACT College Readiness Benchmarks extend from grade 8 to grade 12, including the entire range for typical students learning algebra.
ACT data on college-readiness skills and workplace-readiness skills is available to researchers for independent research or research in collaboration with ACT. ACTs data use policy ensures appropriate use of confidential information.
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Team Name |
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iLearn |
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Team Leader |
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Bob Collins - bob@ilearn.com |
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Area & Recs |
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Standards of Evidence-Research Policies and Mechanisms 39 |
As part of our overall program of continuous improvement, iLearn remains committed to the development and dissemination of research based curriculum materials in support of the aims of the National Math Panel. The research for 2008-2009 will evaluate the impact of iPASS on middle school students. Three outcome questions are proposed to evaluate the impact of iPASS:
A. Does math performance improve as a result of participation in iPASS?
B. Does math performance improve differentially for users and non-users of iPASS?
C. Do the effects of iPASS on math performance differ across types of students and settings?
To answer these questions iLearn will conduct two kinds of studies:
A. Random controlled field studies conducted in school systems.
B. Smaller studies conducted on a variety of learning based questions that have direct implications for addressing practical curriculum issues that have arisen from designing iPASS.
These studies will contribute to establishing the effectiveness of iPASS as well as contribute to basic knowledge of effective learning strategies that can be used in classrooms. We will continue our efforts to identify schools for partners in this program of research.
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Team Name |
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Iowa Testing Programs |
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Team Leader |
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Catherine Welch - catherine-welch@uiowa.edu |
|
Area & Recs |
|
Standards of Evidence-Research Policies and Mechanisms 39 |
Plan
Recommendation #39 of the Research Policies and Mechanisms strand of the Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel identifies the need for the design and development of items and tests that improve the assessment of mathematical knowledge. As part of a research initiative for Iowa Testing Programs we recognize the need for a focused, coherent progression of mathematics learning, with an emphasis on proficiency with key topics which will become the norms in elementary and middle school mathematics curricular (recommendation #1). As developers of mathematics assessments that are used throughout the country, our goal is to design and develop new assessments to assist K-12 mathematics educators. In particular, we are interested in expanding the information from testing to help inform intervention strategies related to benchmarks in mathematics identified by the National Mathematics Advisory Panel. Three critical foundation areas of whole numbers, fractions and geometry/measurement are of interest to our new development and interpretation initiative. Information gathered from the forum will inform the development of assessments of the highest technical quality and utility. We are interested in gathering information from a variety of specialists in mathematics education from around the country to help inform our approaches to design, development and use. The forum will be used to obtain reactions to our current development plans so that they may be modified in ways that are consistent with the recommendations of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel.
Resources
Iowa Testing Programs has initiated a review of state standards in mathematics for all grade levels. A preliminary pool of mathematics items has been developed that is aligned to state curriculum standards. These items are being administered in a variety of school districts from across the nation this fall. Based on the information collected, assessments and interpretive materials will be developed that enhance teacher ability to use the data from these assessments. Additional surveys of content coverage in instruction in K-12 mathematics education are being conducted throughout the state of Iowa to address the potential for large-scale, summative assessments to provide information back to teachers about core, benchmark standards in mathematics as articulated by the national advisory panel.