EDC to Lead New Research on Learning Strategies

WALTHAM, MA | EDC has received $3.26 million from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to study innovative strategies to improve outcomes for K–12 students. EDC researchers will lead four studies with the aim of helping educators strengthen programs and policies related to English learners, career technical education, literacy instruction, and supports for online learners.

EDC researchers and evaluators will lead the following:

• Lessons to Support English Learners’ Mathematics Achievement. Over four years, Mark Driscoll, Jill Neumayer DePiper, and Johannah Nikula will develop and test a unit on fraction division for middle school math instruction and provide preliminary evidence about the unit’s promise to enhance instruction for English learners. The team will conduct a pilot study of 500 grade 6 students in Massachusetts middle school mathematics classes with substantial populations of English learners.
• Comparing Approaches to Career Technical Education (CTE). Katherine Shields, Ilene Kantrov, Lynn Goldsmith, and Sarah Ryan will examine three models of CTE with varying levels of work-based learning experiences—career academies, career pathways, and elective CTE courses—to identify preliminary evidence of factors that can improve student outcomes. The four-year study will include nine high schools in a large California district with 40 career academies.
• Impact of Structured Methods in Language Education (SMiLE). Carrie Parker and Lauren Katzman will lead a cluster randomized controlled trial to examine this literacy intervention for students with significant cognitive disabilities who are non-readers or beginning readers. The two-year study includes 480 K–5 students in New York City District 75, a district of more than 23,000 students with the most significant disabilities in the city. EDC’s partner will be the New York City Department of Education.
• Impact of an Orientation Course on Improving Students’ Completion of Online Courses. Jacqueline Zweig, Erin Stafford, and Makoto Hanita will lead a randomized controlled trial to determine the impact of an orientation course on online course completion rates by high school students taking such a course for the first time. Findings from the study will guide the design of online programs nationwide. The two-year study will focus on 3,300 Michigan high school students in over 350 districts. EDC’s partners will be the Michigan Department of Education and Michigan Virtual Schools.

The grants to EDC were awarded by the IES National Center for Education Research and National Center for Special Education Research.

EDC designs, implements, and evaluates programs to improve education, health, and economic opportunity worldwide. Visit www.edc.org and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.