Study Type: QED
Principal Investigator: Mingyu Feng – WestEd
Project Description: In this QED, 59 middle school math teachers and their 2,855 students from 36 schools in 24 states participated in the intervention across two cohorts (2022-23 and 2023-24). All teachers participated in the intervention by using the ASSISTments platform for students, the ASSISTments teacher interface, and the vPLC for teachers. Students took the NWEA Map Growth math assessment at the beginning and end of the school year, allowing the researchers to create a matched comparison sample of students by matching intervention students with up to 51 real students from the NWEA national database based on school and student characteristics, including pretest scores. After matching was completed, researchers averaged the scores of the matched students to create one virtual comparison student for each intervention child.
Key Findings: There were no differences in the full sample between students’ end-of-year MAP Growth test scores for those receiving the ASSISTments intervention and the constructed virtual comparison group. However, for students scoring below the 50th percentile on baseline math achievement, those receiving the intervention scored 1.20 points higher, on average, compared to the matched comparison group, an effect size of 0.10. This pattern was similar for the subgroup of rural students, for which there was no overall intervention impact but a small effect size of 0.11 for those scoring below the 50th percentile at baseline. Intervention students in sixth grade slightly outperformed their matched peers (effect size of 0.07), and there were no differences for those in seventh or eighth grade. Interviews with a subset of teachers revealed generally positive views of both the ASSISTments platform and vPLC.
Study Citation: Feng, M., Li, L., Brezack, N., & Schneider, M. (2025). Scaling teachers’ professional development for ASSISTments companion report: Implementation analysis of the ASSISTments intervention
Full report here.
The Key Findings above were reproduced from the published report and do not necessarily reflect interpretation of Overdeck Family Foundation staff.
