This research project also included students who were taking geometry in a South Florida Public High School located in Miami-Dade County. the study used two groups of 25 students; one was the control group and the other the experimental group from a predominately Hispanic high school.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has contributed immensely to social and economic improvements, such as higher employment and productivity, and increased access to a higher quality of life. ICT incorporates electronic technologies and techniques used to manage information and knowledge, including information-handling tools used to produce, store, process, distribute and exchange information. The benefits of ICT can be achieved directly, through improved healthcare provision and disease prevention, or indirectly, through improved social infrastructure, economic growth, or other broader determinants of population health. In the context of public health, ICT, if properly designed and implemented, can generate many positive outcomes: improved access for communities in rural or remote areas, support of healthcare professionals, real-time disease surveillance, data sharing, and data capture, storage, interpretation, and management. ICT can generate important contributions to public health, from education to surveillance. In the education and higher learning context, ICT enables healthcare professionals to be updated and trained on knowledge advances wherever are located. The US National Higher Education ICT Initiative (2003) defines ICT knowledge as “the ability to use digital technology, communication tools, and/or networks appropriately to solve information problems to function in an information society. This includes the ability to use technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate, and communicate information and the possession of a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information.” ICT tools are also indispensable to healthcare professionals and researchers because of the current volume and complexity of information available from different sources (peer-reviewed journals, the Internet, and mainstream media). In 2003, a study reported that 55 new clinical trials were performed per day, 1,260 articles were indexed in MEDLINE per day, and 5,000 papers were published in the health field per day.7 Information management tools are thus necessary for these professionals to navigate through the vast amounts of data and information available. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ICT “can contribute to achieving universal education worldwide, through the delivery of education and training of teachers, improved professional skills, better conditions for lifelong learning, and the potential to reach people that are outside the formal education process.” In the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, ICT is highlighted as the means to reach the underserved, to listen, and to learn from their experience. Online education is essential for students whose physical presence in class is impeded because of work or family responsibilities, geographical limitations, health issues, or other constraints. Although face-to-face interaction in a classroom setting seems to be preferred among education professionals, the number of online universities and online courses offered by on-campus universities has risen in the past 10 years. To develop successful online programs, however, it is necessary to understand what the specific ICT needs of an institution are. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), investments in higher education are essential for economic growth, and the global demand for higher education is predicted to increase vastly from less than 100 million students in 2000 to more than 250 million students in 2025. Institutions have to integrate the innovative tools made available by ICT to increase access to and improve the quality and competitiveness of higher education programs. Without these tools and technologies.
The United States ranks in the middle of the nations participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment, and secondary education has not seen growth in mathematics achievement since the 1970s. Computer-assisted math education offers a new opportunity to increase mathematical achievement with students. Pearson Education’s MyMathLab has shown promise at the higher education level with enhancing student proficiency in concepts. The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of Math XL, the secondary counterpart to MyMathLab, could increase mathematics achievement, measured by the performance on the end-of-course test for Algebra I and Geometry for high school students in a computer-assisted math intervention program. The quasi-experimental posttest-only study enhanced the current knowledge of MyMathLab/Math XL as a tool for higher education and demonstrated the effects of using it at the secondary level. The sample was taken from high school Algebra I and Geometry students at an online high school in a southern state. A comparison group was created from students meeting the same criteria for the computer-assisted math intervention program who chose not to participate. An analysis of variance was used to test for statistically significant differences in the end-of-course test scores in those students enrolled in a computer-assisted math intervention program and those students not enrolled in a computer-assisted math intervention program. The analysis found no significant difference in the mean between the group enrolled in computer-assisted intervention and those not enrolled.
Test-based accountability systems that attach high stakes to standardized test results have raised a number of issues on educational assessment and accountability. Do these high-stakes tests measure student achievement accurately? How can policymakers and educators attach the right consequences to the results of these tests? And what kinds of tradeoffs do these testing policies introduce? This book responds to the growing emphasis on high-stakes testing and offers recommendations for more-effective test-based accountability systems.
With over 60 years of education reform, including the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in 1958, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975, and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2002, the achievement gap still existed at the beginning of the 21st century, and the effectiveness of the U.S. public school system continued to be questioned. This study was conducted to examine the effect of the use of a computer-assisted instruction curriculum, Achieve 3000®, among select secondary reading students in a central Florida school district and their implications for student achievement. This study showed significant difference existed in the type of students rather than the reading program. The ANCOVA performed on all students and the ANOVAs performed for exceptional education students, males and females, free/reduced lunch and ethnic subgroups did not show a significant statistical difference in the 2012-2013 reading achievement scores. The Achieve 3000® reading program did not close the achievement gap any more than the non-Achieve 3000® reading program. Conversely, the ANOVA performed for English language learners did show a significant statistical difference between the 2012-2013 reading achievement scores. However, the effect size each question was small indicating the practical implication was also small. Ultimately, this study made a strong argument for the need for further research.
