Efficacy of Online Instructional Materials to Accelerate Student Achievement Growth

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Unequal Impacts of COVID-19, Reopening Operations, and Recovery Efforts on Student Outcomes Across Four States (Table 30)

Abstract

Objectives: As school districts work to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on student achievement growth, many have leveraged existing technology platforms for additional instructional time. This study investigates the use of the iReady Personalized Instruction platform to promote student acceleration in the wake of the pandemic. The results of the two-district study provide evidence of the impact of this popular software by student subgroup and school setting (i.e., high versus low performing schools).

Theoretical framework: Grounded in the improvement sciences, our study provides a nuanced understanding of local practices and differential impacts to support the effective scaling up of evidence-based practices (Joyce & Cartwright, 2020; Lewis, 2015).

Data Sources: We partnered with two school districts in metro-Atlanta who use the iReady Personalized Instruction platform. The platform provides interactive lessons and nationally-normed adaptive formative assessments based on the skill levels of individual students. Both district partners provided access to student-level data on iReady usage, iReady scores, demographics, summative assessment test scores, and school characteristics.

Methods: For the descriptive analysis of student use of iReady, we created histograms and examined descriptive statistics on the number of lessons completed, average lesson length, and pass rate both overall and across content areas. We then used regression analysis to examine the relationship between the number of lessons completed and associations with domain tests as well as the relationship between teacher-assigned lessons, which are manually assigned to students by their teachers, versus automatically assigned lessons based on the adaptive learning platform. We subsequently conducted subgroup analyses by student race/ethnicity, disability status, EL status, qualification for free/reduced-price meals, and refugee status. In addition, prior to the AERA 2024 conference, we intend to leverage the staggered rollout of iReady in one of our school district partners to estimate more plausibly causal effects.

Results: Overall, time spent on lessons has little effect on iReady scale scores, except in Phonics. Increasing the time spent on a lesson did not increase the likelihood of passing the lesson on the first try. However, students who completed more lessons did score significant higher on the iReady assessment in Geometry and High-Frequency Words. Additionally, the impact of completing an additional lesson on math scores was higher when there was teacher assigned as well as adaptive lessons, but the opposite was true in reading.

Significance: This study provides an impact analysis of iReady usage and associations with student growth across different student subgroups, schools, and iReady content areas. As a widely used virtual learning tool with features similar to other learning platforms on the market, the strengths and limitations of the platform for various subgroups, subject areas, and school settings can support school districts in making decisions about the extent to which they should continue investing in virtual learning platforms in light of the looming reduction in federal COVID-19 funds.

Authors

• Jennifer Suzanne Darling-Aduana, Georgia State University

• K. Jurée Capers, Georgia State University