TASC Impact on Student Learning and Classroom Practices
4. Results
Third, fifth and eighth grade students on their 2006-07 EOG tests completed two questions which asked them to mark activities they did during their science class that year. One question asked the students to mark all activities that occurred and the other asked the students to mark the activities that they spent the most time doing in their science class. The two most frequent responses for all of the data to the first question were "Completed a science experiment or project" and "Listened to the teacher explaining something about science." This result was fairly consistent for all grade levels and targeted school systems and was consistent across teacher training categories. However, the student responses for the TASC-trained teachers showed a higher percentage of responses for these questions. Further, the regression model results showed evidence of a significant effect of TASC-trained teachers on the responses. The classroom science practices responses showed weak correlations (r values ranging from 0.15 to 0.27) with the EOG scores in mathematics, reading and science for all students with slightly higher correlations with middle school scores and responses.
Correlations of teacher training to overall student achievement scores showed results of r=0.20 for mathematics, r=0.23 for reading and r=0.15 for science scores for teachers who had received some TASC professional development service. At the 5th grade level, correlation values for this teacher training category were r=0.12 for mathematics, r=0.14 for reading and r=0.19 for science. At the 8th grade level, correlation values for TASC trained teachers to achievement scores were r=0.09 for mathematics, r=0.09 for reading and r=0.05 for science. The correlation values for science-only trained teachers or teachers without any science training were r≤ 0.10 or were negative values. Interesting to note, results indicated strong correlations for each achievement test score to each other. Preliminary multiple regression results suggested that the effect of having a TASC trained teacher on student achievement may vary according to which LEA is involved.
Correlations of teacher training to overall student achievement scores showed results of r=0.20 for mathematics, r=0.23 for reading and r=0.15 for science scores for teachers who had received some TASC professional development service. At the 5th grade level, correlation values for this teacher training category were r=0.12 for mathematics, r=0.14 for reading and r=0.19 for science. At the 8th grade level, correlation values for TASC trained teachers to achievement scores were r=0.09 for mathematics, r=0.09 for reading and r=0.05 for science. The correlation values for science-only trained teachers or teachers without any science training were r≤ 0.10 or were negative values. Interesting to note, results indicated strong correlations for each achievement test score to each other. Preliminary multiple regression results suggested that the effect of having a TASC trained teacher on student achievement may vary according to which LEA is involved.
