The ARC Center Tri-State Student Achievement Study (ARC Center, 2003, available online at http://www.comap.com/product/?idx=965) provides the most recent evidence that Investigations is having a positive impact on student achievement. This large-scale study of three states, revealed that average scores of students in schools fully implementing Investigations in Number, Data, and Space®, Math Trailblazers, or Everyday Math as their core mathematics curriculum were significantly higher than the average scores of students in matched comparison schools not using these curricula.
Using data from the original Tri-State Student Achievement study, Gatti (2004) compared the performance of students in Investigations schools in Massachusetts to students in schools from the original matched group in that state (schools not using Investigations, Math Trailblazers, or Everyday Math). The analysis revealed the same pattern of results. Students in schools fully implementing Investigations in Number, Data, and Space® out-performed peers from the original set of matched schools.
A validation report, research studies, the ARC Executive Summary and the Gatti report are included in the Investigations in Number, Data, and Space® Validation and Research booklet. Pearson, publisher of Investigations, publishes this booklet that includes student achievement data from publicly reported test scores for a randomly selected sample of school systems using Investigations. This booklet is available from the Pearson representative in your region. Validation data is also online at pearsonschool.com/investigations (click on the Research and Validity tab).
The book Standards-based School Mathematics Curricula: What are They Learning? What Do Students Learn? (Senk and Thompson, 2003) provides analysis of research on K-12 Standards-based curricula. In the Investigations-specific chapter, Learning to Reason Numerically, Jan Mokros presents a summary of early quantitative studies focused on number computation. The following studies are reviewed in this chapter:
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Flowers, J. M. (1998). A study of proportional reasoning as it relates to the development of multiplication concepts. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
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Goodrow, A. M. (1998). Children's construction of number sense in traditional constructivist, and mixed classrooms. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Tufts University, Medford, MA. (For a summary see Modes of Teaching and Ways of Thinking.)
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Mokros, J., Berle-Carmen, M., Rubin, A., & Wright, T. (1994). Full-year pilot grades 3 and 4: Investigations in Number, Data, and Space®. Cambridge, MA: TERC.
For a brief overview of this research, see:
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Mokros, J. (2000). The Investigations curriculum and children's understanding of whole number operations. Cambridge, MA: TERC.
To review a related study conducted during the initial field-testing of the curriculum, see:
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Mokros, J., Berle-Carmen, M., Rubin, A., & O'Neill, K. (1996). Learning operations: Invented strategies that work. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New York, NY.