$1 Million Study on Learning Underway in Texas District

A study underway at Waskom Independent School District in Waskom, TX will provide valuable information for both educators and scientists.

The largest part of the study, funded by a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, looks at cognitive skills training in order to improve student learning ability and will take place at the high school level.

In October, all students in the district took the Gibson Test, an online cognitive skills assessment used to identify weaknesses in student learning. Grant funding from Cognitive First, a non-profit organization that works with under-resourced and at-risk children, helped cover the cost of testing and will also pay for online brain training for some students at the elementary level.

"We are pleased to be donating access to evaluations and online exercise sets being used in this study," said Larry Hargrave, founder of Cognitive First.

At the high school level, researchers from Virginia State University who are overseeing the study will administer brain scans for some district students. Students will spend 15 weeks receiving three different modes of instruction according to random placement in one of three groups. One group will receive standard instruction. A second group will receive online brain training in addition. A third group will receive one-to-one assistance in cognitive skills training from staff at LearningRx.

Students will be randomly chosen to undergo brain scans with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before the 15 week instruction period and then afterward to measure brain changes.

"This is an amazing opportunity to boost the learning skills and potential of every single student at our school with no cost to parents or the district," said Waskom High School Principal Stuart Musick. "The cognitive testing alone will provide valuable information for our teachers and families regarding each student's strengths and weaknesses, and will give us the insight we need to help strengthen those skills to improve grades and performance."

For more information about Cognitive First, visit cog1st.org. Visit learningrx.com to learn more about LearningRx.

Featured

  •  laptop on a clean desk with digital padlock icon on the screen

    Data Privacy a Top Concern as Orgs Scale Up AI Agents

    As organizations race to integrate AI agents into their cloud operations and workflows, they face a crucial reality: while enthusiasm is high, major adoption barriers remain, according to a new Cloudera report. Chief among them is the challenge of safeguarding sensitive data.

  • chart with ascending bars and two silhouetted figures observing it, set against a light background with blue and purple tones

    Report: Enterprises Are Embracing Agentic AI

    According to a new report from SnapLogic, 50% of enterprises are already deploying AI agents, and another 32% plan to do so within the next 12 months..

  • stacks of glowing digital documents with circuit patterns and data streams

    Mistral AI Intros Advanced AI-Powered OCR

    French AI startup Mistral AI has announced Mistral OCR, an advanced optical character recognition (OCR) API designed to convert printed and scanned documents into digital files with "unprecedented accuracy."

  • student using a tablet with math symbols dissolving into a glowing AI

    Survey: Students Say AI Use Can Reduce Math Anxiety

    In a recent survey, 56% of high school students said that the use of artificial intelligence can go a long way toward reducing math anxiety.