Online Algebra Access: What Can We Learn from Middle Grades Classrooms?

EDC researcher Cheryl Tobey (left) and Maine Liaison Pamela Buffington monitor a chatroom during a webinar discussing REL-NEI's three-year study of online algebra access in mostly rural schools.

Researchers and education stakeholders around the Northeast and Islands Region met via webinar on February 10th to explore the design and implications of REL-NEI’s three-year study examining eighth-grade access to Algebra I in 70 mostly rural Maine and Vermont schools. The Pathways to Math Achievement Study will measure the impact of increased access to Algebra I through an online course on eighth-graders’ math achievement and math course-taking patterns through 10th grade. Funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the study began in fall 2008 and continues through 2010.

Webinar participants from around the country included state education agency (SEA) leaders from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, as well as math curriculum specialists, superintendents, principals, and senior researchers, among others.

The research is not designed to compare online algebra with a face-to-face algebra course, noted study evaluation director Jessica Heppen at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), a REL-NEI partner organization. It is focused, rather, on “the impact of using an online course to broaden access to Algebra I.” The overarching research question is: What is the impact of offering Algebra I, using an online course, in schools that do not typically offer an Algebra I course to eighth-graders? The findings are expected to be particularly useful for rural and small schools, which often face financial and geographical obstacles to offering eighth-grade algebra.

Elaine Pinckney, superintendent of the Chittenden South school district in Vermont and a REL-NEI Governing Board Member, told the group that from her perspective success in Algebra I is “a powerful indicator in terms of not only future course-taking, but future success in upper-level science and math classes.” She said the study’s findings could provide important information to help policy decisions regarding student access to Algebra I.

Participating schools identified their eighth-grade students who were ready to take Algebra I, explained Margaret Clements, co-principal investigator and senior researcher at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), which administers REL-NEI. Half the study schools were randomly chosen to provide those “algebra-ready” students with an online Algebra I course this academic year while the remaining eighth-graders take the regular eighth-grade math class. The other half of schools —the control schools—are continuing with their regular eighth-grade math course for all students (including those considered “algebra-ready”). As a thank you for participating in the study, the control schools will receive the online algebra course for free over the next two years.

Short-term outcome measures include all students’ end-of-eighth-grade achievement on general math and algebraic concepts. Longer-term outcomes will include ninth-grade math grades and course-taking patterns through 10th grade.

Implementation Director Cheryl Tobey, of EDC, described the online course as an “asynchronous learning environment,” where students and their teachers do not have to be online at the same time. While the teachers are remotely located, all study schools have on-site course proctors who provide technical support and monitor students’ behavior and participation.

Christine Downing, a mathematics education specialist for the New Hampshire Department of Education, asked how the study team would be able to disentangle effects of algebra in eighth grade from the mode of learning and whether information was being collected on what is taught in the regular eighth-grade math classes. “Because of the comparison as it is set up, we will not be able to tease apart the content, or the curriculum of the course, from the mode of delivery,” Heppen said. The study team, however, is recording how much algebra is taught in the regular eighth-grade classes to better understand the results of the study.

Cecile Carlton, a curriculum supervisor from Nashua, N.H., asked how the students and online teachers communicated and whether the online teachers were highly qualified. Tobey explained that all online teachers were required to be highly qualified math teachers in both Vermont and Maine. They communicate with their students through several modes, including live chat sessions or phone conversations.

Webinar participants remarked that the research could have relevant policy implications, even in states that are not part of the study. “I am very intrigued by this study and look forward to your initial findings. Since New Hampshire is in the middle of Vermont and Maine, we are hoping to benefit from this work,” Downing stated at the end of the discussion.

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