The sessions are currently scheduled for the following dates:

- August 11st at UMASS Amherst
- August 13th at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- August 18th at WestEd Woburn Office

Each one can host 15-20 attendees

The study is being conducted by WestEd and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES). WestEd is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that conducts education research and evaluation.

Three big benefits to teachers are: (1) They will gain access to the MathSpring learning platform. (2) They will receive professional development training that not only covers MathSpring use, but also includes sessions on integrating classroom and student analytics with instruction. Teachers will be compensated for professional development time. (3) They will receive a stipend for their participation the research activities.

Additionally, your district will receive a study report on what we learn about changes in student achievement outcomes and their attitude towards math from using MathSpring.

MathSpring is a supplemental learning environment designed to integrate with and complement existing math curricula. The platform is primarily a space for students to practice solving math problems; you would use it in conjunction with another math curriculum. The content in MathSpring is aligned with the Common Core standards as well as the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework.

A computer algorithm randomly assigns teachers to either an immediate use or a delayed use group. We are unable to directly place a teacher in either group. Participating teachers have a 50% chance of being assigned to each group.

To maintain the integrity of the study design, it is important that we adhere to the randomization process. Although this means we will likely have teachers in either condition who wished to be in the other, this is necessary (from a study perspective), as randomization allows the study to isolate the effect of the MathSpring system from other factors such as the types of teachers implementing the curriculum. This is not possible if teachers are allowed to select the tool they want to implement. Teachers in the delayed use group will have access to MathSpring in the year immediately following the study.

We will need to collect individual student assessment data and some other student data from the district or from the Massachusetts Department of Education (e.g., gender, prior MCAS test scores). This data will be de-identified and individual student identity will remain anonymous to the analysts. Numeric IDs will be created and assigned by the research team to student data so that we can link performance across the assessments. This de-identified data becomes the data for the large-scale analysis.

Participating teachers in the immediate use group will attend a mix of online and in-person PD sessions in the summer of 2021, and short follow-up PD sessions during the study. Teachers in the delayed use group will receive PD in the Summer of 2022. Teachers will be compensated for attending PD sessions. All PD will be put on by UMass at no cost to the district.

We do not expect districts to have to find subs for participating teachers, as all PD sessions will be arranged during out-of-school hours.

Please contact us at pals@wested.org