TY - JOUR
T1 - Preschool Mathematics Intervention Can Significantly Improve Student Learning Trajectories Through Elementary School
AU - Dumas, Denis
AU - McNeish, Daniel
AU - Sarama, Julie
AU - Clements, Douglas
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education, through grants R305K05157 and R305A110188 and also by the National Science Foundation (NSF), through grants ESI-9730804 and REC-0228440. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the IES or NSF. Although the research is concerned with the scale-up model, not particular curricula, a minor component of the intervention used in this research has been published by the authors, who thus could have a vested interest in the results. An external auditor oversaw the research design, data collection, and analysis and other researchers independently confirmed findings and procedures. The authors wish to express appreciation to the school districts, teachers, and students who participated in this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2019/10/1
Y1 - 2019/10/1
N2 - Perhaps more than at any other time in history, the development of mathematical skill is critical for the long-term success of students. Unfortunately, on average, U.S. students lag behind their peers in other developed countries on mathematics outcomes, and within the United States, an entrenched mathematics achievement gap exists between students from more highly resourced and socially dominant groups, and minority students. To begin to remedy this situation, educational researchers have created instructional interventions designed to support the mathematical learning of young students, some of which have demonstrated efficacy at improving student mathematical skills in preschool, as compared with a business-as-usual control group. However, the degree to which these effects last or fade out in elementary school has been the subject of substantial research and debate, and differences in scholarly viewpoints have prevented researchers from making clear and consistent policy recommendations to educational decision makers and stakeholders. In this article, we use a relatively novel statistical framework, Dynamic Measurement Modeling, that takes both intra-and interindividual student differences across time into account, to demonstrate that while students who receive a short-term intervention in preschool may not differ from a control group in terms of their long-term mathematics outcomes at the end of elementary school, they do exhibit significantly steeper growth curves as they approach their eventual skill level. In addition, this significant improvement of learning rate in elementary school benefited minority (i.e., Black or Latinx) students most, highlighting the critical societal need for research-based mathematics curricula in preschool.
AB - Perhaps more than at any other time in history, the development of mathematical skill is critical for the long-term success of students. Unfortunately, on average, U.S. students lag behind their peers in other developed countries on mathematics outcomes, and within the United States, an entrenched mathematics achievement gap exists between students from more highly resourced and socially dominant groups, and minority students. To begin to remedy this situation, educational researchers have created instructional interventions designed to support the mathematical learning of young students, some of which have demonstrated efficacy at improving student mathematical skills in preschool, as compared with a business-as-usual control group. However, the degree to which these effects last or fade out in elementary school has been the subject of substantial research and debate, and differences in scholarly viewpoints have prevented researchers from making clear and consistent policy recommendations to educational decision makers and stakeholders. In this article, we use a relatively novel statistical framework, Dynamic Measurement Modeling, that takes both intra-and interindividual student differences across time into account, to demonstrate that while students who receive a short-term intervention in preschool may not differ from a control group in terms of their long-term mathematics outcomes at the end of elementary school, they do exhibit significantly steeper growth curves as they approach their eventual skill level. In addition, this significant improvement of learning rate in elementary school benefited minority (i.e., Black or Latinx) students most, highlighting the critical societal need for research-based mathematics curricula in preschool.
KW - dynamic measurement
KW - early childhood
KW - educational intervention
KW - longitudinal studies
KW - mathematics education
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U2 - 10.1177/2332858419879446
DO - 10.1177/2332858419879446
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85084340472
SN - 2332-8584
VL - 5
JO - AERA Open
JF - AERA Open
IS - 4
ER -