July 2005 — SETDA
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Creating Strategies for Improved Teaching and Learning
The advantages of the remote site observations included a reduction in travel time and costs, and an increase in the number of observations per day. Disadvantages included camera placement (e.g., being out of view) and no opportunity to interact with students (Classroom Observational Data Collection: Do We Physically Have to be in the Classroom? PERL, 2005, perl.educ.iastate.edu/Classroom%20observational%20data.pdf). The technology also provided a great networking opportunity because it helped the teachers connect with other schools for ideas on what works.
Impact on student learning. The second set of results that PERL found concerns the impact on student learning. The graph on the preceding page shows an example of the impact on student learning for problem solving in fourth-grade math. The NCLB requires states to focus on or give preference to those schools that were in need of assistance or had a high number of students in economically disadvantaged situations.
In this example,the experimental (treatment) group was made up of students with a low soci'economic status or who had not previously performed well in math, which accounts for the large difference between starting points for the two groups. From the chart, one can conclude that the treatment group experienced a much greater improvement rate than the control group. Other groups of students who were measured in reading and math at fourth and eighth grades showed similar results.
As with any study, we wanted to find out what caused the change in student performance, and the extent to which the professional development model and technology affected the change. The professional development and technology variables’ range of impact upon the fidelity and frequency of implementation of the teaching strategies was consistent throughout all teaching strategies monitored in reading and math at grades 4 and 8, and algebra at grades 7 through 9. The specific results are in the chart below, where, for example, R2 = means that students’ prior knowledge + IPDM + technology account for 63.6 percent of variance in the improvement of reading scores for fourth-grade reading comprehension.
Fighting a never-ending battle. It is really a shame that just as the NCLB Title II D program is starting to show the effects of technology to support change in teacher behavior and improve student achievement in Iowa, President Bush has proposed zeroing out this funding source. The US Department of Education is saying that other funds can be used for this purpose; however, these additional funds are being used to support different efforts in schools. While technology and its role in Iowa will not go away, it will take the state longer to create the change that everyone expects.
John O’Connell is an instructional technology consultant for the Iowa Department of Education. Gary Phye, PhD, is director of the Psychology in Education Research Laboratory at Iowa State University. He is also a professor in the university’s Department of Psychology and Department of Curriculum and Instruction.
* US Government Accountability Office (No Child Left Behind Act: Additional Assistance and Research on Effective Strategies Would Help Small Rural Districts, 2004, www.gao.gov/new.items/d04909.pdf)
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