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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 9/26/07 |
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In
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June 18, 2007 Educational benefits of Einstein Project Research confirms group's work boosts test scores By Kelly McBride
The recently completed University of Wisconsin-Green Bay research shows that the organization — which provides hands-on science curriculum for 41 school districts across the state — is linked to higher standardized test scores among fourth-grade students.
Using Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination data, UWGB assistant professor of science education Scott Ashmann determined students with the curriculum fare better than those without.
An Einstein board member, Ashmann said he wanted to see if numbers supported the good things he was hearing from educators.
"I've talked to a number of teachers around the area who have used the Einstein Project materials," Ashmann said. "Almost all of them have said not only how much their students have enjoyed using them, but also the progress the teachers had noted in female students, students with disabilities, students from limited economic means and so on."
Ashmann's study, using data from 2002 to 2005, drew three primary conclusions:
Data strongly support a positive influence of Einstein Project materials on fourth-grade WKCE scores, based on a comparison of Einstein districts and randomly selected non-Einstein districts.
Use of Einstein Project materials helps close the achievement gap for students with disabilities, students with limited English proficiency and minority students.
Female students, disabled students, those with limited English proficiency and Asian students from Einstein Project districts significantly outperformed those from non-Einstein districts.
Einstein's hands-on approach is a key part of engaging students in science, said Julie Paavola, the organization's executive director. And while the organization doesn't exist to raise test scores, the numbers show it has a positive effect, she said.
"We knew this, but we needed data to take to people and say to people that this works," she said. "This is why we embarked on this study."
The project gets about 85,000 student participations a year, Paavola said, although not every one is a unique student. Depending on the school, some students might do multiple project units in a year.
During the 2006-07 school year, 2,685 units came and went from the Einstein Project warehouse. Some of those were used in the fifth-grade classroom of Jay Marcks, a teacher at Pioneer Elementary School in Ashwaubenon.
Marcks has used the units for his entire nine-year teaching career. The study's results were no surprise, he said.
"It creates interest through hands-on activities," said Marcks, who also has used the Einstein Project to teach fourth-grade science, "and it demonstrates the benchmark or objective of each lesson, rather than through (the) lecture textbook thing. ... They actually get to see it."
Ashmann hopes to continue his study of the Einstein Project, first through a similar quantitative analysis of eighth-grade standardized test scores.
Pending approval of a National Science Foundation grant, he also hopes to do a qualitative analysis by getting inside the classroom.
Paavola is eager to learn from those studies, she said.
Ashmann's study "really raised some more questions, too," she said. "It wasn't just like, 'OK, we're done now.'"
By the numbers
78.2: State average (percentage) of fourth-grade students who scored advanced or proficient on state standardized science tests, from 2002 to 2005.
82.7: Percentage of non-Einstein Project fourth graders who scored advanced or proficient on state standardized science tests, 2002-2005.
- University of Wisconsin-Green Bay study
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