July 2005 — SETDA
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Can Technology Narrow the Black-White Achievement Gap?
Upon the teacher’s completion of the second year of professional development for each cohort, researchers collected data from students enrolled in each eMINTS teacher’s classroom and compared the achievement of black and white students on the MAP statewide tests. During the years of the study, the MAP given in third grade covered communication arts and science knowledge and skills, while the MAP given in fourth grade covered mathematics and social studies knowledge and skills. The data covered a three-year period beginning in the 2000-2001 school year (for the first cohort) and ending in the 2002-2003 school year (for the third cohort).
A summary of the data concluded: “Analysis [in the study] presented evidence that enrollment in an eMINTS classroom may improve performance on the MAP achievement examinations for both black and white students as well as decrease the gap. … The average performance of black students enrolled in eMINTS classrooms in the FY01 and FY02 cohorts was considerably higher across all subject areas than the average performance of black students not enrolled, while the results for black students in the FY00 cohort were mixed. In the FY01 cohort, those differences in average total MAP score ranged from 7.6 points higher in communication arts to 19.6 points in mathematics, and in the FY02 cohort, they ranged from about 12 to 13 points higher depending on the subject” (Douglas R. Hager, An Exploratory Study of the Black- White Achievement Gap in eMINTS Student Gap Results, eMINTS National Center, 2004, www.emints.org/evaluation/reports/gapanalysis.pdf).
Limitations. The data also found a few limitations to the study such as:
- Small numbers of black students in eMINTS schools (e.g., in the 2001-2003 cohort only 120 black students were available for inclusion in the fourth-grade group).
- Due to the structure of the MAP, there are no pre-test data to show how students performed individually before eMINTS enrollment.
- There is insufficient information about instructional practices in eMINTS classrooms (beyond general information) to understand the causes of differences in student scores.
- Overall, there was a wide variance in the scores for black students.
Interpretations of the study and the analyses contained in it led eMINTS program administrators and many participating school leaders to view the eMINTS instructional model as a promising instructional intervention for black students. For complete analyses of all cohort groups from 1999-2003, access the full study online at www.emints.org/evaluation/reports.
Monica M. Beglau, EdD, is director of the
eMINTS National Center at the University
of Missouri System’s Office of Academic
Affairs. E-mail: beglaum@emints.org
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