The Effects of a Formative Assessment Intervention on Student Understanding of Basic Mathematical Principles

• In Event: Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Division C, Section 3 Poster Session

Abstract

This paper describes data from a middle-school math formative assessment intervention. We employed a randomized, controlled design to address the following: Does using our strategy improve student performance on assessments of key mathematical ideas relative to controls? Seventy-two teachers and 2,012 students participated. Students took a pretest, and two transfer measures. Treatment students completed formative assessments. Treatment teachers had exposure to professional development and instructional resources. Results indicated students with higher pretest scores benefited more from the treatment compared to students with lower pretest scores and significantly outperformed controls on transfer measures and more so on difficult items. Additionally, number of years participating had a positive impact on student performance. Results, limitations and future directions are discussed.

Authors

• Julia C. Phelan, University of California - Los Angeles

• Yunyun Dai, University of California - Los Angeles

• Terry P. Vendlinski, SRI International

• Eva L. Baker, University of California - Los Angeles

• Joan L. Herman, University of California - Los Angeles