Building Fraction Knowledge in Students Who Have Fallen Behind in Math: Preliminary Findings from an Efficacy Study

• In Event: Experimental Mathematics Interventions in Classrooms and Schoolyards to Promote Early Numeracy and Rational Number Learning

Abstract

U.S. students have lost significant ground in math since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to recent NAEP data (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2022), the declines have been the most dramatic for those already in need. Declines for children in the lowest 10th percentile were four times steeper than those in the 90th percentile. Fractions represent a key achievement roadblock for many struggling students, especially in the middle grades. To help students build basic knowledge and catch up, we developed an intervention for low performing 6th graders, many of whom are minorities from under-resourced communities. Our fraction sense intervention (FSI) embeds instruction in the meaningful context of a color run “race for the cure.” The FSI purposefully incorporates evidenced-informed strategies from the science of learning, including: gestures to communicate mathematical concepts, appropriate vocabulary to communicate mathematical ideas to struggling students, concreteness fading as a technique to develop conceptual understanding of fractions, interleaved and distributed practice to help “make learning stick,” retrieval practice with corrective feedback, multiple representations, side-by-side comparisons to promote relational thinking (e.g., presenting solutions for addition and multiplication problems side by side). Previous versions of the FSI have proven effective when administered in very small groups with trained researchers (Authors 2021; 2022). The purpose of our efficacy study, funded by IES, is to test the intervention when carried out by classroom teachers in realistic intervention settings. In this presentation, we will describe the features of the FSI in the classroom and report new findings from the first year of the multi-year randomized study, funded by IES. Participants were 47 consenting sixth graders who qualified for the school’s intervention based on low math achievement. Six intervention classes were randomly assigned to the FSI or the school’s regular math intervention. The FSI includes 24 novel PowerPoint lessons, which focus on fractions as numbers, fraction equivalence and ordering, and fraction arithmetic. Each lesson lasts about 30 minutes. Although multiple representations are used, instruction centers on the number line. FSI teachers were trained through professional development and mentored by the research team. Control teachers documented their instruction for comparison purposes. All lessons were audio recorded to check fidelity of implementation. Students were tested on a reliable fraction measure at pretest and posttest. Overall effect size on fraction achievement (Hedges g) was 1.22, suggesting that the FSI children performed over one SD unit better than controls. Effect sizes on sub-areas ranged from .54 (fraction arithmetic) to 2.95 (measuring fractions on a ruler). FSI teachers reported that the intervention was straightforward and relatively easy to implement. These preliminary findings show promise for the usability and effectiveness of the FSI. However, more data with multilevel analyses at the classroom level will allow us to draw firmer conclusions. In this presentation we will also address post-pandemic challenges for conducting research in middle schools with teachers as partners.

Authors

• Nancy Dyson, University of Delaware
  Presenting Author

• Nancy C Jordan, University of Delaware

• Heather Suchanec, University of Delaware

• Taylor Paige Guba, University of Delaware

• Megan Botello, University of Delaware