Digital Promise Resource Repository :: Browsing by Author "Means, Barbara"

Browsing by Author "Means, Barbara"

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Broadening Participation in STEM College Majors: Effects of Attending a STEM-Focused High School
(AERA Open, 2018-11) Means, Barbara; Wang, Haiwen; Wei, Xin; Iwatani, Emi; Peters, Vanessa
To increase participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) studies and careers, some states have promoted inclusive STEM high schools. This study addressed the question of whether these high schools improve the odds that their graduates will pursue a STEM major in college. State higher education records were obtained for students surveyed as seniors in 23 inclusive STEM high schools and 19 comparison schools without a STEM focus. Propensity score weighting was used to ensure that students in the comparison school sample were very similar to those in the inclusive STEM school sample in terms of demographic characteristics and Grade 8 achievement. Students overall and from under-represented groups who had attended inclusive STEM high schools were significantly more likely to be in a STEM bachelor’s degree program two years after high school graduation. For students who entered two-year colleges, on the other hand, attending an inclusive STEM high school was not associated with entry into STEM majors.
Continuous Improvement and Postsecondary Student Success
(Digital Promise Global, 2019-03) Means, Barbara; Neisler, Julie
Review of our prior research on the effectiveness of adaptive courseware for Gates Foundation used in introducing our role to colleges participating in Every Learner Everywhere.
Deepening Science Engagement With Challenge Based Learning: Research Report
(Digital Promise, 2020-02) Iwatani, Emi; Means, Barbara; Romero, Maria R.; Vang, Mai Chou
Learn about the Challenge Based Science Learning Project and its larger implications for the fields of Next Generation Science Learning and Open Educational Resources. The project involved 18 middle school teachers and five administrators from three U.S. school districts partnering with instructional coaches and learning sciences researchers from Digital Promise to address an ambitious educational challenge: How might we deepen engagement and learning of middle school science in our schools and beyond?
Designing Gateway Statistics and Chemistry Courses for Today’s Students: Case Studies of Postsecondary Course Innovations
(Digital Promise, 2022-08) Peters, Vanessa; Pakhira, Deblina; White, Latia; Fennelly-Atkinson, Rita; Means, Barbara
Scholars of teaching and learning examine the impacts of pedagogical decisions on students’ learning and course success. In this report, we describes findings from case studies of eight innovative postsecondary introductory statistics and general chemistry courses that have evidence of improving student completion rates for minoritized and low-income students. The goal of the case studies was to identify the course design elements and pedagogical practices that were implemented by faculty. To identify courses, Digital Promise sought nominations from experts in statistics and chemistry education and reviewed National Science Foundation project abstracts in the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program. The case studies courses were drawn from 2- and 4-year colleges and were implemented at the level of individual instructors or were part of a department or college-wide intervention. Among the selected courses, both introductory statistics (n = 5) and general chemistry (n = 3) involved changes to the curriculum and pedagogy. Curricular changes involved a shift away from teaching formal mathematical and chemical equations towards teaching that emphasizes conceptual understanding and critical thinking. Pedagogical changes included the implementation of peer-based active learning, formative practice, and supports for students’ metacognitive and self-regulation practices.
Enabling Analytics for Improvement: Lessons from Year 2 of Fresno’s Personalized Learning Initiative
(Digital Promise, 2018) Peters, Vanessa; Means, Barbara; Langworthy, Maria; Neufeld, Phil; Coe, Ryan; Meehan, Kenneth; Smith, Stevin
Lessons From Remote Learning During COVID-19
(Digital Promise, 2021-03) Means, Barbara; Peters, Vanessa; Neisler, Julie; Wiley, Korah; Griffiths, Rebecca
The abrupt transition to remote instruction in response to COVID-19 posed significant challenges for both students and instructors. This report provides data on the prevalence of the different kinds of challenges college students faced during the shift to remote instruction and the nature of spring 2020 courses from the perspectives of both students and instructors. These descriptions are complemented by survey data on the prevalence of online instructional practices that are generally recommended in the online learning literature and analyses of the relationship of these practices to student satisfaction with their course. This report describes findings from two research activities conducted concurrently: a survey of a nationally representative sample of over 1,000 undergraduates who were taking online courses that included in-person meetings when they began and had to switch to entirely remote instruction; and qualitative descriptions of 29 courses offered by 10 institutions, based on interviews and focus groups with students and instructors.
Partnering to promote equity and digital learning
(Digital Promise, 2023-02) Wiley, Korah; Neisler, Julie; Means, Barbara
This report describes a 15-month collaboration between three Every Learner Everywhere partner organizations (Achieving the Dream, the American Association of Public and Land-grant Universities [APLU], and Digital Promise) and five colleges, all engaged in a research-practice partnership (RPP) around enhancing equity and digital learning in gateway courses. The report describes the key features of research-practice partnerships, the design choices made for this Equity and Digital Learning RPP, the process of establishing the RPP, RPP activities both within and across institutions, and data on student perceptions and academic performance in the target courses before and after the RPP activities.
Rubrics for Examining Deeper Learning in Middle School Science Classrooms
(Digital Promise, 2020-01) Iwatani, Emi; Means, Barbara; Romero, Maria R.
This classroom observation tool was developed for the Challenge Based Science Learning project funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, which brought together Challenge Based Learning and the Next Generation Science Standards (https://digitalpromise.org/initiative/next-generation-science/cbl-ngss/ ). It’s aligned to the activities and student work rubrics used in the project, can be used by researchers, educators and professional learning experts to study deeper learning in middle school science and engineering classrooms.
Rubrics for Examining Historical Thinking Skills in High School World History Activities and Student Work
(Digital Promise, 2021-01) Hardy, Angela; Iwatani, Emi; Means, Barbara; Seylar, John
These Historical Thinking Skills rubrics were created and validated for use in the evaluation of Gates Ventures’ World History Project (WHP) curriculum. The set of rubrics for scoring teacher lessons were designed to evaluate the potential of teacher-assigned activities (e.g., an essay prompt) to provide opportunities for students to learn historical thinking skills, while the set of rubrics for scoring student work were designed to assess the extent to which students successfully used historical thinking skills in the work these activities produced (e.g., a written essay). The categories of historical thinking skills identified for measurement are aligned with widely accepted national frameworks and standards, making these rubrics applicable for use by researchers, educators and professional learning experts to study historical thinking skills learning in high school world history classrooms.
Rubrics on Historical Thinking Skills for Assignments and Student Work: Initial Validity Evidence
(Digital Promise, 2021-01) Iwatani, Emi; Means, Barbara; Seylar, John; Hardy, Angela
Digital Promise sought to create and validate two sets of Historical Thinking Skills rubrics for use in its evaluation of Gates Ventures’ World History Project (WHP) curriculum: one for evaluating teacher-assigned activities, and another for evaluating the student work those activities produced. Adopting a principled assessment development approach called Evidence Centered Design (Mislevy et al., 2003), the Digital Promise team began by conducting an academic literature review to inform rubric design, then piloted the draft rubrics to test their validity by having expert world history teachers score a sample of world history assignments and associated student work and provide feedback on the rubrics and scoring process. We found that scores that trained raters assigned to activities and student work were generally consistent across scorers, and scorer feedback indicated that the rubrics did indeed measure valuable historical thinking skills. Based on an analysis of rubric scores and scorer feedback, our team revised the draft rubrics to their final form.
Scaling Up Design of Inquiry Environments
(Routledge, 2021-06) Roschelle, Jeremy; Mazziotti, Claudia; Means, Barbara
Bringing inquiry learning environments to scale is an important issue for society, especially given the needs for stronger inquiry skills among future citizens, employees, and leaders. Scaling up is a complex challenge for any educational innovation, as new pressures emerge as innovations scale. This chapter argues that scaling is particularly challenging for ambitious inquiry learning innovations that often do not find a good fit with prevailing priorities in many of today’s classrooms and communities. Six examples of inquiry learning environments that achieved considerable scale and four additional long-term partnerships illustrate the potential for scaling inquiry learning environments and key requirements for achieving scale . The example projects planned for scaling from the earliest stages of their work. They invested in scaling up for a long period of time, and their approach evolved to incorporate insights gained through their experience in the field. Teams implementing these inquiry learning innovations reflected on which principles helped them reach scale and consolidated their understanding of their approach as a learning activity system; they addressed teacher learning needs; and they built partnerships to sustain support for their approach. The chapter reviews definitions of scaling up, causes of failure, strategies linked to success, and unresolved remaining challenges.
STEM Courses During the COVID Pandemic: Lessons from Spring 2020
(Digital Promise Global, 2020-12) Means, Barbara; Peters, Vanessa; Neisler, Julie; Griffiths, Rebecca
The abrupt transition to remote instruction in response to COVID posed significant challenges for both students and instructors. This report provides data on the prevalence of the different kinds of challenges students faced and the ways in which low-income and minoritized students were differentially affected by the shift to remote instruction. It also describes the nature of STEM courses in spring 2020 as they were taught at a distance from the perspectives of both students and instructors. The report offers findings from two research activities conducted concurrently. It discusses a survey of a nationally representative sample of over 650 undergraduates who were taking STEM courses that included in-person meetings when they began and had to switch to entirely remote instruction. It also includes qualitative descriptions of 28 STEM courses offered by nine institutions, based on interviews and focus groups with students and instructors.
Suddenly Online: A National Survey of Undergraduates During the COVID-19 Pandemic
(Digital Promise, 2020-07) Means, Barbara; Neisler, Julie; Langer Research Associates
Digital Promise and Langer Research Associates developed the “Survey of Student Perceptions of Remote Teaching and Learning” to capture the experiences of undergraduates taking courses that transitioned to online instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey explores the nature of college courses as they were taught during the COVID-19 outbreak, the pervasiveness of various challenges undergraduates faced after the transition to remote instruction, and course features associated with higher levels of student satisfaction. Data analyses compared experiences of students from low-income, underrepresented, or rural backgrounds to those of students with none of these characteristics.This survey was administered in the spring of 2020 to a random national sample of 1,008 undergraduates, age 18 and older, who were taking college courses for credit that included in-person class sessions when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and had to finish the course by learning at a distance.
Unmasking Inequality: STEM Course Experience During the COVID-19 Pandemic
(Digital Promise, 2020-08) Means, Barbara; Neisler, Julie
This report describes the experiences of over 600 undergraduates who were taking STEM courses with in-person class meetings that had to shift to remote instruction in spring 2020 because of COVID-19. Internet connectivity issues were serious enough to interfere with students’ ability to attend or participate in their STEM course at least occasionally for 46% of students, with 15% of students experiencing such problems often or very often. A large majority of survey respondents reported some difficulty with staying motivated to work on their STEM courses after they moved online, with 45% characterizing motivation as a major problem. A majority of STEM students also reported having problems knowing where to get help with the course content after it went online, finding a quiet place to work on the course, and fitting the course in with other family or home responsibilities. Overall, students who reported experiencing a greater number of major challenges with continuing their course after it went online expressed lower levels of satisfaction with their course after COVID-19. An exception to this general pattern, though, was found for students from minoritized race/ethnicity groups, females, and lower-income students. Despite experiencing more challenges than other students did with respect to continuing their STEM courses remotely, these students were more likely to rate the quality of their experiences when their STEM course was online as just as good as, or even better than, when the course was meeting in person.

Browsing by Author "Means, Barbara"

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