ICT Supported Learning Rises Math Achievement in Low Socio Economic Status Schools
Sustained improvement in student achievement on national standardized tests for low socio economic status (SES) districts is critical for reducing gaps in educational inequality. We report the results of 3 years of implementation of an ICT web-based learn
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bstract. Sustained improvement in student achievement on national standardized tests for low socio economic status (SES) districts is critical for reducing gaps in educational inequality. We report the results of 3 years of implementation of an ICT web-based learning environment in all 11 public schools of a low SES urban district in Chile. This includes 43 fourth grade classes and 1,355 students. This is a Computer Aided Instruction program that promotes whole class collaborative learning with peer support. Effect size on the national standardized fourth grade math test is 0.33, which is three times the national improvement level over the same period and five times the improvement made by a neighboring district with a similar population. On the other hand, the same students did not make any improvements on the national standardized language test. Since each class was taught by the same teacher, only without ICT, we can therefore discount the teacher effect. Keywords: Computer aided instruction
Web-based learning Effect sizes
1 Introduction Sustained improvement in student achievement for low SES schools is critical for reducing gaps in educational inequality. This enormous challenge has several components. First, there is the difficulty of reliably measuring student achievement [7]. This requires being able to conduct annual national standardized tests. Furthermore, it is necessary to do large-scale, randomized control experiments. In the absence of such randomized trials, it is necessary to do non-experimental studies using statistical controls that include the relevant factors with which students are sorted by teachers and schools [13]. Next there is the difficulty of obtaining effects of an interesting size. Large-scale studies of the effect on student achievement for different factors do not reveal huge impacts. For example, factors such as the type of institution that educate the teachers [10], teacher certification [12], teacher professional development [13], change of teaching practices [6, 8, 14], textbooks [3], leadership strategies [17], use of computers [9, 22–24], and use of calculators [20], show impacts of a modest size or no © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 G. Conole et al. (Eds.): EC-TEL 2015, LNCS 9307, pp. 383–388, 2015. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-24258-3_28
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effect at all. In other cases, it is not clear how to change practices [6]. Moreover, most of these studies use pre- and post-tests designed or selected by the researchers and they are not necessarily aligned to the national standards, unlike national standardized tests. Impact studies are much scarcer in developing countries. Firstly, there is a lack of resources for funding research projects, particularly if the study lasts several years. Secondly, resources for implementing Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) programs are very scarce. This is due in part to computer labs being less widely available, as well as there being less technical support for computer labs. There is also much less access to intern
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