This project combines the expertise and resources of the University of Illinois at Chicago Learning Sciences Research Institute, the University of Texas Dana Center, the Urban Mathematics Leadership Network, and the Agile Mind educational software company to design, develop, and test student and teacher instructional materials and software for Algebra I. The innovative course is explicitly designed to address the needs of students whose interest and prior achievement in mathematics make that subject especially challenging for them. The project starts from the assumption that those struggling students need to and can master the concepts and skills of a rigorous Algebra I course. However, the developers argue that chances of success will be greatly enhanced if algebra classes for those students provide more instructional time and special complementary activities focused on social, affective, linguistic, and strategic cognitive and meta-cognitive dimensions of learning.
The project has identified a set of design principles for instructional materials that draw from research on students with special learning needs, and it uses those principles in a design-based research process to construct and study effects of the Intensified Algebra materials. The core of the curriculum materials is the Agile Mind computer-based Algebra I software, a program that is enhanced by inclusion of coordinated youth development experiences.
The project addresses a series of research questions about usability and effects of the new Algebra I course. Those questions are studied with a two-tier research effort over three years. Teaching and learning are examined intensively in a small set of experimental classes to gain insights necessary for iterative development of the curriculum materials and teacher resources. A larger sample of experimental classes are studied less intensively, with survey methods, in order to gain understanding of the challenges confronting dissemination of the emerging program to a larger, less directly supported family of users.
Dissemination of the final products will gain substantial momentum through the Urban Mathematics Leadership Network whose members are 22 of the largest U. S. urban school districts and have expressed strong support for the importance of the planned algebra initiative.
In response to the large-scale challenge of Algebra I being the most-failed high school course, the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Learning Sciences Research Institute (LSRI) in collaboration with the University of Texas’ Charles A. Dana Center and education technology company Agile Mind, Inc., proposed a research and development initiative to increase the success rates of 9th grade students who are enrolled in algebra classes but are significantly underprepared for high school mathematics. The initiative was initially funded through a series of planning grants, and then as a full-scale design-research project through a National Science Foundation DR-K12 grant in response to the challenge of assuring students the opportunity to learn significant STEM content. Using a design-based research approach, the aim of the initiative was to develop and study an algebra program for struggling students that could be successfully implemented at scale, particularly in urban school districts. The resulting program, Intensified Algebra (IA), is a comprehensive program for students enrolled in double-period algebra classes. Central to the design plan was the assumption that students who struggle in mathematics need more than just a good algebra curriculum or additional time in class to be successful. Thus, in addition to a rigorous mathematics core that targets underprepared learners, the approach explicitly addresses the social, affective, linguistic, and metacognitive dimensions of learning mathematics. IA targets high school students who are the most at-risk—those who enter high school significantly behind in mathematics but who are also facing increasingly rigorous mathematics graduation requirements. The overall construction of IA emanates from three major design principles based on the needs of these learners. First, IA has at is core the rigorous algebra content needed for subsequent success in high school and post-secondary education. Second, the algebra core is coupled with the systematic use of mathematics pedagogies and routines that are known to assist struggling mathematics students, such as mechanisms for effective formative assessment and differentiation of instruction and for identification of mathematical preconceptions and misconceptions that can become targets of instruction. Third, IA addresses the social, motivational, organizational, and linguistic needs of struggling and special-needs learners. Synthesizing these components into a coherent, transformative program was at the heart this design-based research project The project’s articulated goals follow; for each goal, outcomes are reported. Goal 1: Iteratively design and test student and teacher materials for a full-year, 9th grade, double-period algebra program that integrates effective approaches for teaching algebra with instructional features that, independently, have proven to be effective with struggling learners. OUTCOMES: Completed development of Intensified Algebra I—student and teacher materials. The program consists of 156 lessons, each of which is organized around 80 minutes of instruction. Documented the challenges in building and enacting the program, the solutions, and the student learning outcomes. Over the course of the project, research findings informed IA’s development through three iterative "develop-test-revise" cycles. Conducted research on student learning and achievement, including a small-scale efficacy study in Chicago Public Schools. Administered and analyzed student surveys to assess students' perceptions of and experiences with the program and their attitudes and beliefs about mathematics and themselves as learners. Field-tested the materials in 83 districts/265 schools, with approximately 690 teachers and 24,200 students. Shared information about the project through conference presentations and papers. Goal 2: Develop and test materials and strategies that enable teachers to effectively implement the comprehensive IA program and that help promote collaboration within and across schools among teachers of the course. A particular target was novice or inexperienced teachers, who disproportionately teach the double-period classes. OUTCOMES: Provided face-to-face professional development and web-based seminars to support program implementation for field-test teachers. Created a program implementation guide and advice for instruction for 156 lessons to provide guidance to teachers in planning and delivering the program. Conducted an implementation study to assess the fidelity of implementation of the intended curriculum. Project’s external evaluators administered a teacher survey in Spring 2011 and Spring 2013 on the program's usability, enactability, and perceived challenges and benefits, including those related to student learning and achievement; conducted post-survey interviews with teachers; conducted interviews with a subset of district administrators regarding the IA program (e.g., benefits, challenges, usability, scalability); and produced two written briefs on the evaluation of IA. Goal 3: Develop and test structures and tools that promote IA’s scalability in large, urban districts and elsewhere. The project continues to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of leveraging technology to organize and deliver at scale consistent, high-quality supports for program implementation. OUTCOMES: The program, now in Version 5, is being used in approximately 400 schools, with approximately 900 teachers and 35,000 students during the 2014-15 school year. Agile Mind, Inc., a partner on this project, provides technical and programmatic support to teachers and administrators in partner districts and schools through its professional services team.
