How can we look at the question of raising achievement? Achievement is the ultimate standard for evaluation efforts. Achievement is directly measured by standardized achievement test scores and by tracking the future success of students in education and career. Measuring achievement gains is complicated, however, by several factors. First, teaching and learning improves achievement, not laptops. Achievement if s function of how well the teachers are using the technology, not the presence of technology. Second, education researchers agree that it often takes 3-5 years to see changes from a large scale innovation on achievement scores. That is true of any sort of innovation or initiative, not just with technology. It is an unreasonable expectation, then, to see improvements in test scores in the first several years of an initiative. Further, there is often an implementation dip (a dropping of test scores) after the introduction of a new initiative. That's not because the intitiative is hurting students, but because there is often a learning curve for everyone involved and focusing on mechanics of implementing any initiative often manifests itself in a short lived, expected, drop in achievement scores. Lastly, clearly students' future success is not a tool that can be used when in the early years of implementation. If these direct measures aren't going to be helpful, what can we look at to help determine to what extent we are likely to impact achievement? You need to examine the key predictors of achievement: the quality of students' learning and teachers' instruction. Some of the indicators of the quality of the learning include: the students' level of engagement their attitudes toward school the level of their use of technology their grades their attendance and behavior patterns  Some of the indicators of the quality of the teaching include: the teachers' use of strategies to engage students the teachers' level of content knowledge their attitudes toward students, especially their sense of efficacy their teaching philosophy (constructivist teachers better integrate technology) the level of their use of technology their attitudes toward technology   Strategic Responses: When people ask about how your initiative is impacting achievement, respond "Since researchers know that it takes 3-5 years to change test scores with a new program, and that there is often a drop in test scores at the beginning of any new program, we're looking at some other factors that will tell us how our program will impact achievement." Then tell them a little about how you are doing on those measures. Explore the strategies for success with 1-to-1 learning with laptop initiatives. Explore how you can gather evidence about the quality of your learning and teaching. Explore how you can tell the story of your program and share your evidence.

The 1-to-1 Advocate 1-to-1 Evaluation MLLS Home MLTI MLLS Research Briefs         The Maine Learning with Laptop Studies is a project of the Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning in collaboration with The Institute for the Integration of Technology Into Teaching and Learning   Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning University of Maine at Farmington 252 Main St. Farmington, ME 04938 http://www.mcmel.org Mike Muir, Director mmuir@maine.edu 207-778-7179 Inservice Available   The Institute for the Integration of Technology Into Teaching and Learning University of North Texas Matthews Hall Rm. 316 1300 Highland Ave. Denton, TX 76203 http://www.iittl.unt.edu/ Gerald Knezek, Director gknezek@gmail.com 940-565-2057 Rhonda Christensen, Associate Director rhonda.christensen@gmail.com Created by Mike Muir Last updated: March 24, 2005