Spotlight

Engaging Families Leads to Student Academic Gains and Increased Attendance: How TalkingPoints Improved Outcomes in a Large Urban School District

Grantee: TalkingPoints

Study Type: Quasi-Experiment (unmatched comparison group study)

Principal Investigator: Rina Park & Kevin Fosnaught – TalkingPoints; Eric Chan – Babson College

Project Description: This is a retrospective quasi-experiment of TalkingPoints, an online platform designed to facilitate communication between teachers and families whose primary language is not English. The sample is comprised of approximately 30,000 students from 100 schools. The study compares outcomes from students whose schools adopted the TalkingPoints platform in the 2016-17 school year with those whose schools implemented the program in later years in order to examine the relation between families’ engagement with the TalkingPoints platform and a range of student outcomes, including academic performance and attendance.

Key Findings: Overall, the study found statistically significant positive effects on standards-based grade proficiency across four of six subject areas, including English language arts, math, science, and social studies (ranging from 2.5 to 4.9 percentage point increases) with largest impact on math (4.9 percentage point increase from a baseline of 66.4 percent) and English language arts proficiency levels (4.5 percentage point increase from a baseline of 67.2 percent). 

On the Smarter Balanced Assessment System, researchers found significant and positive changes for math (8.7 point increase from a baseline of 2,458) and positive, but not significant, estimates for English language arts (4.4 point increase from a baseline of 2,463). Researchers also found statistically significant positive effects on the attendance rate (1.1 percentage point increase from a baseline of 93.6 percent; equivalent to a reduction of 15 percent of absenteeism rate from 6.4 percent) across all specifications.

Study Citation: Park, Rina, Fosnaught, Kevin, & Eric Chan. Engaging Families Leads to Student Academic Gains and Increased Attendance: How TalkingPoints Improved Outcomes in a Large Urban School District. TalkingPoints, 2022. Retrieved from https://talkingpts.org/pdf/Report-TalkingPoints-Academic-Gains.pdf.

Full report here.

The Key Findings above were reproduced from the published report and do not necessarily reflect interpretation of Overdeck Family Foundation staff.

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A collection of research funded by Overdeck Family Foundation.

Summaries of Research Grants

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As a leading education funder, we are dedicated to advancing the belief that “evidence matters” through novel, methodologically sound, and actionable research that uncovers programs and models with the potential to positively improve outcomes for all children. We believe research is a key way to increase awareness of what’s effective and to impact evidence-based decision-making and practice across our main grantmaking areas: early childhood, hands-on STEM education, and K-9 programs that include supporting educators and student-centered learning environments.

Aligned with our core value of “learn better, together,” Overdeck Family Foundation is committed to promoting transparent research practices by lifting up timely findings of the research we fund. We update this page as research is concluded and published, ensuring transparency for the field and our grantees.

Research Areas

Early Childhood

Validation and knowledge generation studies in the field of early childhood.

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K-9 Education

Research into what works for students and educators in the classroom.

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Out-of-School STEM

Validation and knowledge generation studies on the impact of out-of-school STEM.

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Other

Research into cross-cutting topics across the education sector.

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Engaging Families Leads to Student Academic Gains and Increased Attendance: How TalkingPoints Improved Outcomes in a Large Urban School District

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