Date of Award

Fall 12-2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Dr. Evelyn Hendrix

Second Advisor

Dr. Sherrie Wisdom

Third Advisor

Dr. Edward Perantoni

Abstract

In the USA, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 resulted in requirements placed on school districts to show student achievement in mathematics, based on measured adequate yearly progress. This caused school districts to search for standards based programs that improve mathematics learning. A quantitative multi-year study was used to compare the state-assessed achievement levels of 1,695 fifth-grade Midwestern children in the state of Missouri, who learned mathematics from two different curriculum-delivery programs, EveryDay Mathematics and EnVision Mathematics. A 2 by 2 by 8 research design was used through the choice of two elementary schools using EveryDay Mathematics and two different elementary schools using EnVision Mathematics, across an eight-year timeline. The dependent variable was represented by the students’ scores on the mathematics portion of the standardized required state test, the Missouri Assessment Program. Student scores from 2006-2013 were collected for the four public schools in the St. Louis Metropolitan area. The schools chosen were matched to control for socio-economic level, ethnicity mix, departmentalization of content areas, extent of teacher experience, and class sizes. The four schools represented two school districts. Each district uniformly used one of the mathematics programs examined in this study, over the eight years. Results of this study could not show that either mathematics program was significantly better, as measured by student test scores on mathematics topics. Unfortunately, results also showed no overall increase in mathematics learning at these four schools over the eight year period. The study concluded that curriculum materials choice, alone, is not sufficient to insure increased fifth-grade student learning of iv mathematics. Variables such as the extent of teacher professional development, teacher specialization, and curriculum launch practices at schools were discussed as possible influences on the results of the study.

Rights

Copyright 2014

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