Examining the Influence of Professional Development on Primary Students’ Mathematical Achievement

• In Event: Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Elementary and Early Childhood Math Professional Development

Abstract

This study presents the findings from a year-long professional development project (APLUS). The project focused on developing teachers in Kindergarten and Grade 1 to use of formative assessment data and standards-based pedagogies to support their students’ mathematical understanding of number sense skills. Descriptive analyses of the 300 teachers and data from 5,300 students indicated that in some of the participating districts, students in treatment classrooms outperformed students in control classrooms. Multi-level analyses indicated that teachers' who formatively assessed their students more had a statistically significantly higher gain than other teachers.

Authors

• Andrew B. Polly, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

• Chuang Wang, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

• Christie Lynn Martin, University of South Carolina - Columbia

• Richard G. Lambert, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

• David K. Pugalee, University of North Carolina - Charlotte