Grant Evaluation Report:
We were thrilled to receive funding to serve 26 classes in 8 schools. We could serve this many since a couple of the schools combined classes allowing us to teach more students at one time and limiting separate sessions. We conducted 420 sessions.
We were gratified that we could provide so many students with enriching and engaging math lessons, but we also received more data. We were very pleased with the results and the feedback from the teachers. This information directs our curriculum and drives improvement. It helps us to determine what is working well and what needs to be modified to work better.
The program exceeded our objectives of conducting enjoyable math LEGO sessions for underserved students, and we are delighted with the results. We only wish we served more!
Results:
This school year we had multiple school buildings and districts interested in having the Making Mathletes program for their 2nd and 4th grade students - both prior and new program partners. With the funding we procured from the Charles H. Dater Foundation and others, we served 26 classes in 8 schools.
Throughout this project, we used an iSPACE-developed curriculum for 4th grade and a LEGO-developed curriculum for 2nd grade with slight modifications to tailor it to the students we served. Each grade’s lessons are engaging, hands-on, authentic, applied, relevant, and use LEGO elements to help make abstract concepts (like fractions and number sense) more concrete for students. We also increased the foundational math skills for low-income (schools averaged 94% free/reduced lunch) or Black or Hispanic (schools averaged 82% minority) students. The series ran for twenty weeks (18 lessons, one pre-test, one post-test).
In the Making Mathletes program, pre/post-test results showed that 78% of fourth-grade and 58% of second-grade students increased their knowledge of foundational math skills.
When responding to the question: “What percentage of your students have increased knowledge of and/or skills in Mathematics because of participating in the iSPACE MM program? Fourth-grade teachers’ responses ranged from 25%-100% and averaged 59%. Second-grade teachers’ responses ranged from 70%-100% and averaged 86%.
Of the students who reported lacking confidence in math on the pre-test - 60.5% reported an improvement in their confidence on the post-test (4th grade only). For the second grade, confidence was measured by asking students if they were sure that they got the answer correct. Of the students that did not have confidence in their pre-test answers, 85% expressed confidence in their post-test answers. However, the sampling was small because many students overlooked the confidence checkbox question. Future post-tests will have this more prominent. Their classroom teachers also rated increased student confidence, with an average of 3.2/4 (using a Likert scale of 1-4).
: June 2022
