While most discussions on narrowing the achievement gap emphasize the role of the teacher, a middle school math program being expanded through one of the Obama administration’s signature education programs puts the emphasis on student teamwork.
The program—called Student Teams-Achievement Divisions-Math, or STAD-Math—is one of 23 initiatives to share in $150 million being provided through the latest round of grants from the U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation Fund, also known as “i3.”
Expansion of STAD-Math is being overseen by Old Dominion University, which won $25 million in i3 funds to expand the program to serve 135,000 students in 185 “high need” middle schools throughout the country over the next five years.
Like other grantees, to secure the award, the university had to secure 5 percent of its grant money, in this case $1.25 million, in matching funds.
ODU is the lone grantee to win a “scale-up” grant through the federal initiative, due largely to the program’s proven track record. Other grantees won “validation” or “development” grants.
Prior research has shown that the STAD-Math program has spurred gains of 40 percent in math achievement and stands to narrow the achievement gap between ethnic and racial minorities and White students.
“To give a sense of perspective, the difference between African-American or Hispanic and White eighth grade mathematic scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress is equal to an effect size of about 0.50,” notes an ODU project narrative titled “A Technology-facilitated Scale up of a Proven Model of Mathematics Instruction in High Need Schools.”
