Experts laud the potential of educational technology (edtech) to promote reading among students with disabilities, but supporting evidence is lacking. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Lexia® Core5® Reading edtech program (Core5) on the Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP) Growth Reading™ and easyCBM oral reading fluency performance of…

An ever-growing call for the use of evidence-based practice has come up against the logistical hurdles of a lack of resources and expertise, particularly in rural schools that work with historically underserved students. Although integrated learning systems (ILSs)--stable and likely requiring fewer resources than personnel--do not offer a complete…

Around the country, high school teachers are being called upon to improve student writing, but they often lack the tools and requisite know-how to make a difference. An ambitious new program called Drive to Write is attempting to change that. This report describes an evaluation of the program's implementation in 11 public high schools in New York…

The current study investigated the effectiveness of three distinct educational technologies--two game-based applications (From Here to There and DragonBox 12+) and two modes of online problem sets in ASSISTments (an Immediate Feedback condition and an Active Control condition with no immediate feedback) on Grade 7 students' algebraic knowledge.…

Empirical Education Inc. is the independent evaluator of SRI International's 2014 Investing in Innovation (i3) Development grant called Redesigning Secondary Courses to Improve Academic Outcomes for Adolescents with Disabilities and Other Underperforming Adolescents. The goal of the grant is to develop "Enhanced Units" that combine…

The purpose of this research study was to evaluate iPersonalize, a gamified instructional approach developed by Fullerton School District (FSD) in California to encourage student engagement and promote achievement. An instructional approach is considered gamified when it incorporates computer game elements to augment existing classroom,…

The purpose of this research study was to evaluate iPersonalize, a gamified instructional approach developed by Fullerton School District (FSD) in California to encourage student engagement and promote achievement. An instructional approach is considered gamified when it incorporates computer game elements to augment existing classroom,…

Student engagement in online learning remains a challenge for the design of effective coursework. Additionally, few analyses have focused on student-produced activities in the online mode or upon how such class activity affects student subgroups differently. We conducted a randomized design experiment with student video production at a large…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a variation of the Good Behavior Game (GBG) in which teachers used ClassDojo to manage each team's progress. ClassDojo is a computer-based program that enables teachers to award students with points for demonstrating target behaviors. Dependent variables included class-wide…

Programs serving infants and toddlers are expected to use child data to inform decisions about intervention services; however, few tools exist to support these efforts. The Making Online Decisions (MOD) system is an adaptive intervention that guides early educators' data-based intervention decision making for infants and toddlers at risk for…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Literacy-Infused Science Using Technology Innovation Opportunity (LISTO) validation project (Valid 45). LISTO was funded by the Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund and involved a multi-year intervention that provided virtual professional development and coaching, and literacy-infused science curricula to…

This paper discusses the implementation and evaluation of an innovative professional development program that supported 8th grade mathematics teachers in designing learning activities that assisted students in developing a conceptual understanding of mathematics. Funded by an Investing in Innovation (i3) grant from the U.S. Department of…

In 2016, McREL and the University of Southern California (USC) were awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund (Award Number U411C150011) to develop a translation of the identity-based motivation (IBM) in vivo program "Pathways to Success" to a digital platform to deliver IBM to middle and…

This article reports on 2 experiments in inner-city Baltimore evaluating a computer-assisted tutoring approach, Tutoring With Alphie (TWA), in which 1 paraprofessional can work with up to 6 children at a time. In Study 1, we randomly assigned 14 schools to receive TWA or to continue with whatever approaches they were currently using. Each…

Classroom discussion boards are a vital part of the online educational experience, providing a venue for peer to peer and student to faculty interactions. However, institutional feedback from students at a large open enrollment university has shown that excess focus on online discussions may lead to fatigue, resulting in lower student…