What is the Efficacy Grant

From TeacherWiki

The Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International is recruiting teachers and schools for a forthcoming study on the benefits of online homework support for student's mathematics learning. This study is in collaboration with Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and the University of Maine at Orono. WPI will provide its ASSISTments technology. The University of Maine at Orono will provide local support. The four year long study will begin in the summer of 2012.

The goal of the study is to understand the impact of the ASSISTments online homework support on student achievement, classroom implementation and teacher practice. This application is for schools interested in participating in the study during the 2012-2014 school years.

What are the benefits of participation in the study?

1. Schools will be able to use ASSISTments at no cost (ASSISTments is already free and will forever be free). Half the schools will start in 2012 while the other half will start in 2014.
2. The intervention will not be disruptive to your normal routine. The content you will assign in ASSISTments will be from your textbook and support materials. Teachers will work together to make sure it is aligned with the Common Core standards. You can teach what you already teach but do it more effectively with technology.
3. The 7th grade math teachers will receive high-quality professional development and will belong to a “collaborative learning community” of other teachers in the program supported by an ASSISTments trainer.
4. The 7th grade math teachers will be compensated for their time with a stipend of $25/hour.
5. The 7th grade math teachers will receive a certificate of participation and once you have received your training you will be able to use ASSISTments indefinitely.

We are looking for 26 schools and about twice as many teachers to apply. Once the initial cohort of teachers has been selected the team at SRI will randomly select half to be trained in 2012 and half to wait and NOT use ASSISTments until 2014. Teachers who participate will receive a stipend for their participation in the research and certificates for their participation in the professional development.

List of the partners on this grant?

1. The project will be led by Jeremy Roschelle at SRI. Supporting Dr. Roschelle are Drs. Mingyu Feng and Bob Murphy. SRI International is a nonprofit research institute based in California with a strong reputation for conducting high quality research on promising solutions to educational problems.
2. Worcester Polytechnic Institute, is hosting ASSISTments (Prof. Neil Heffernan) and providing professional development support (Cristina Heffernan).
3. The University of Maine's Center for Research and Evaluation is helping in the support and evaluation of data. Craig Mason, the director of the center. Also on the project are Professors Brain Doore and Janet Fairman.

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