Paul Kehle
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY
TERC is nearing completion of an NSF-funded revision of its curriculum, Investigations in Number, Data, and Space. A research team based at Indiana University, consisting of Diana Lambdin (Principal Investigator), Paul Kehle (Project Director, Hobart and William Smith Colleges), N. Kathryn Essex, Kelly McCormick (University of Southern Maine), and Chris Walcott is in the final year of data collection for a study of the prepublication revised Investigations curriculum.
Approximately 1,800 students in three different geographical U.S. areas representing a range of socioeconomic and cultural characteristics are being followed for three consecutive years. Students are in one of two cohorts: a Grade 1 cohort followed through grades 1, 2, and 3, or a Grade 3 cohort followed through grades 3, 4, and 5. Each child participating in the study completes a series of task-based interview or written assessments. In addition to these test results, we collect each child's results on any standardized tests their state or district requires during the three years of the study. Finally, we also collect curriculum-implementation data to gauge the extent to which the students experience each curriculum as intended by its authors.
The Grade 1 cohort consists of students using the revised Investigations curriculum. Our study of this group is intended to capture critical vignettes in the early development of children's mathematical understandings as supported by the revised Investigations curriculum. The Grade 3 cohort consists of both students using the revised Investigations curriculum and students using a variety of other reform-based or traditional curricula. Our study of this group is intended to permit comparisons across curricula of mathematical achievement on our assessments and on each local district's assessments. The schools not using the revised Investigations curriculum have been matched on SES, ethnic, and achievement criteria to the schools where the revised Investigations curriculum is being used.
The Indiana University assessments, designed to be curriculum-neutral, focus on the areas of number sense and operation, and early algebraic thinking. This selective focus allows us to gain more detail about student achievement in these vital areas than a more comprehensive assessment and will reduce the amount of testing time required of the students.
Because of the longitudinal design of the study, meaningful findings will emerge only after all three years of data have been analyzed. Furthermore, the final results will depend heavily on the final study attrition figures. As children move out of the study sites, the number of participating subjects decreases, and this is especially true in low-SES profile districts. At this point, a very preliminary analysis of the data from Year One supports what other studies have found: Students using the Investigations curriculum perform at least as well as, and in some cases significantly better than, students using other curricula. More detailed analyses will be forthcoming as the complete data set is obtained and analyzed.