Reports 804-794

#804 – The Use of Narrative: Gender Differences and Implications for Motivation and Learning in a Math Game
Sarah Joy Bittick and Gregory K. W. K. Chung

Summary

Many gaming environments use narrative to communicate the background of a computer game, for example, who are the characters, what is their environment, what challenges await, and what resources are available to overcome those challenges. In this study, CRESST researchers analyzed the motivational benefits of narrative in a math game and the relationship to gender and learning outcomes. They found that the use of narrative increased student engagement and learning outcomes regardless of gender, but that learning gains only occurred for male students given the masculine narrative.

#802 – Knowing and Doing: What Teachers Learn from Formative Assessment and How They Use the Information
Greta Frohbieter, Eric Greenwald, Brian Stecher and Heather Schwartz

Summary

This study analyzed three different middle school mathematics formative assessment programs, examining how features of each program were associated with the information they provided to teachers and the manner in which teachers used the information.

The research team found considerable variation in the information teachers obtained from each program and how they used it. They found that greater familiarity with the specific formative assessment system did seem to be accompanied by more integrated use during the school year. They also found that teachers seemed to find it easier to incorporate the systems that had pre-existing assessments than the system that put the burden for assessment design on their shoulders.

The results from this study can aide teachers, administrators and other education stakeholders in deciding which formative assessment systems to adopt, planning for the implementation of formative assessment and providing adequate training for teachers, designing formative assessment systems that better meet teachers' needs, setting realistic expectations for the impact of formative assessment systems on a large scale, and lastly, understanding the impact of formative assessment in a particular context.

#801 – Latent Variable Regression 4-Level Hierarchical Model Using Multisite Multiple-Cohorts Longitudinal Data
Kilchan Choi

Summary

This report explores a new value-added model for monitoring school performance over time. The model estimates three performance indicators: initial status, growth rate, and educational gap parameters across different cohorts. The model shows where each cohort of students within a school starts, how much it gains/grows within a specific time period, and how much the initial gap between initially-low performing students and initially-high performing students is magnified or diminished. The model is distinguished from other value-added models by providing a more comprehensive picture of student growth over time and the distribution of student growth across cohorts within a school.

#800 – Evidence-Centered Design for Simulation-Based Assessment
Robert J. Mislevy

Summary

Simulations provide opportunities for individuals to learn and develop skills for situations that may be expensive, time-consuming, or dangerous. Furthermore, simulations can emulate certain environments, which in turn, provide opportunities for assessing people's capabilities to act in these situations. This report describes an assessment design framework that can help designers develop effective simulation-based assessments and illustrates examples from engineering and medicine.

#799 – Evaluation of Green Dot's Locke Transformation Project: Findings from the 2007-08, 2008-09, and 2009-10 School Years
Joan L. Herman, Jordan Rickles, Mark Hansen, Larry Thomas, Alice Gualpa and Jia Wang

Summary

In the fall of 2007, Alain Leroy Locke High School, historically one of California's lowest performing secondary schools, began its transition into a set of smaller, Green Dot Charter High Schools. This report summarizes early CRESST evaluation findings, examining how Green Dot Locke (GDL) students were performing in terms of school persistence, attendance, course-taking and completion, and achievement on standardized tests. CRESST found positive early trends. Relative to comparison high schools, GDL students' overall total enrollment in core courses increased over the years. Furthermore, GDL pass rates increased for particular courses and California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) scores continued to rise. The results from matched samples suggest that on various student outcome measures, 9th graders who entered GDL often did better than (and at least as well as) they would have if they attended a comparable LAUSD high school. Given the progressive pattern of increasing results for each new group of entering students, broader effects may well materialize as current students progress through high school and on to graduation.

#798 – Improving the Way We Design Games for Learning by Examining How Popular Video Games Teach
Richard Wainess, Deirdre Kerr, and Alan Koenig

Summary

This CRESST report examines how to effectively integrate teaching "how to play a game" with teaching an instructional subject. By analyzing more than 30 popular commercial games, the authors illustrate how games teach game play mechanics and suggest ways to use games for learning.

#797 – An Exploratory Study of the Relationship Between Collaboration and Mathematics and Game Outcomes
Rebecca E. Buschang, Gregory K. W. K Chung, and Jinok Kim

Summary

This is an exploratory study of the relationship between collaboration and mathematics and game performance. 243 middle school students played a video game either with one partner or individually for 40 minutes. Results suggest that participants with low prior math knowledge tended to perform better by working collaboratively, while participants with high prior math knowledge tended to perform better by working individually. These results are similar to prior findings from classroom research which indicates that collaboration is more effective for low-performing students. The results have implications for designing game environments for low-performing students.

#796 – Games as Formative Assessment Environments: Examining the Impact of Explanations of Scoring and Incentives on Math Learning, Game Performance, and Help Seeking
Girlie C. Delacruz

Summary

Due to their motivational nature, there is growing interest in the potential of games to help teach academic content and skills. This report examines how different levels of detail about a game's scoring rules affect math learning and performance. Using random assignment, the author collected data from 164 students in the fourth to sixth grades. The treatment conditions included a control group (played a different math game); three variations of scoring explanations (elaborated, minimal, and no scoring information); and combined elaborated scoring explanation with incentives to access additional feedback.

The scoring explanation alone did not lead to better math learning. However, compared to the minimal-to-no scoring information variations, the combined treatment of the elaborated scoring explanation and incentive resulted in higher scores. The author discusses implications for learning games in mathematics.

#795 – Progress Report Year 4: National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) The Development and Impact of POWERSOURCE©
Eva L. Baker

Summary

The POWERSOURCE© intervention is intended to be a powerful formative assessment strategy that can be integrated with any on-going mathematics curriculum. The key goal is to to improve teachers' knowledge and practice and, in turn, student learning in middle school mathematics. In this 4th year study, the authors provide updated results from the 2006-07 experimental (randomized) field test of POWERSOURCE© and present findings from the 2007-08 school year on student and teacher outcomes. The authors found that a short targeted POWERSOURCE© intervention on key mathematical principles had a positive student performance impact on a transfer measure of related content. POWERSOURCE© had more impact on the higher-performing students than the lower-performing students. They also found a stronger effect on more difficult mathematics items.

#794 – Using Key Conceptual Ideas to Improve Teacher Use of Formative Assessment Data
Terry P. Vendlinski and Julia Phelan

Summary

This paper reports on the outcomes achieved from an innovative professional development program, POWERSOURCE©, that helps teachers apply key foundational concepts and formative assessment to math content studied in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. The authors found significant gains from students' pretests to students' posttests, attributed to POWERSOURCE©. The findings suggest that the gains were associated with changes in teacher thinking and that such change may be easier for more experienced math teachers in earlier rather than later middle school grades.

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