Progress 09/15/18 to 09/14/21

Outputs
Target Audience:Science Your Way enables an instructional approach that allows individualized instruction for students of diverse reading abilities and facilitates the simultaneous instruction of NGSS and Common Core ELA standards. This unique combination of features will provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace--especially for rural schools on tight budgets. They must invest in products that provide lasting comprehensive value, that are effective, and that address multiple needs. The customers are expected to be curriculum directors, elementary principals, and elementary teachers who are seeking to 1) increase informational text instructional time per the Common Core requirements, 2) find supplementary materials that support the NGSS, and 3) increase informational text reading comprehension abilities at all grade levels. Increasing informational text comprehension abilities for students is important to both teachers and administrators because it will also raise English Language Arts standardized test scores to which they are both now held accountable (Allen, 2006; Appleton, 2007; Center on Educational Policy, 2008; Crocco & Costigan, 2007). This product also addresses rural funding and curriculum issues by offering a solution that allows teachers to address two sets of standards simultaneously and to customize informational texts to meet the varied reading abilities and comprehension needs found in rural classrooms. StarrMatica's initial target market is rural school districts, with over 9.1 million students and ~916,000 classrooms. Digital instructional content had annual sales of more than $3 billion, and accounted for 56.8% of all K-12 instructional materials purchased in 2016. Our product's digital delivery, ability to meet multiple curricular goals, and alignment with Common Core and Next-Generation Science Standards make it uniquely relevant and valuable for meeting the needs of rural schools. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The overall objective of this SBIR Phase II project was to fully develop, validate, and commercialize a K-5 customizable science informational texts platform to significantly improve the quality of elementary informational text instruction and standards-aligned science instruction in rural school districts. We did so by supporting teachers' capabilities to efficiently and effectively integrate informational text instruction with standards-aligned science instruction and to individualize that instruction for all of their students. Based on our research results, StarrMatica Texts: Science Your Way enabled teachers to effectively individualize informational text comprehension instruction for all students in their classrooms; facilitated the integration of informational texts with standards-aligned science instruction; and enabled teachers experiencing online professional development to use the platform effectively. Although the current COVID pandemic prevented sufficient software evaluation sites to generate the testing sample sizes which would be necessary for definitive results on whether the software improved individual student informational text comprehension or would achieve significant rural economic impacts, positive outcomes could not be ruled out. The indicators available consistently point towards an expectation of positive impacts from the deployment and utilization of the StarrMatica Science Your Way software. Research Methods and Results StarrMatica worked with Dr. Dana Atwood-Blaine, Assistant Professor of Elementary Education specializing in science at the University of Northern Iowa, to support the classroom studies for Objectives 1-4. Mark Imerman, Economist, completed the economic analysis for Objective 5. Four teachers participated in the Science Your Way research study. The research group included one first grade teacher from Queens, New York; one fourth grade teacher from Preston, Iowa; and one fifth grade teacher from Preston, Iowa. The control group included one second grade teacher from Chicago, Illinois. Teacher data was collected through pre- and post surveys, Zoom interviews, and lesson plan submissions. Because the study was conducted during the global Covid-19 pandemic, in-person classroom observations were not available. Student data was collected through the Qualitative Reading Inventory-6 Assessment. Objective 1 Qualitative Data Because of the pandemic, in-person classroom observations were not possible. Qualitative data for this objective was gathered via a Qualtrics online questionnaire administered to teachers before and after using Science Your Way as well as pre- and post Zoom interviews. Objective 1 was met. All three participants were able to individualize their instruction using Science Your Way better than their previous methods. This was evidenced by an analysis of questionnaires and interviews that revealed all three participants individualized their instruction using Science Your Way's Lexile levels and audio customization features while no teachers individualized their text comprehension instruction before using Science Your Way. In questionnaires and interviews, teachers expressed enthusiasm about the customization options including Lexile leveling. Objective 2 Quantitative Data 53 students from three different classrooms completed the Qualitative Reading Inventory Assessment Version Six (QRI-6) for their grade level both before and after using Science Your Way. The research classrooms included first grade, fourth grade and fifth grade students. The fourth grade classroom had two sections of students participate since the research teacher taught ELA to both sections of fourth grade. The control classroom was second grade students. The first and second grade classrooms were from New York City and Chicago districts respectively, and their students were instructed entirely online for the 2020-2021 school year. The fourth and fifth grade classrooms were from a small rural Iowa district and were instructed in person all year last year. Six months separated the pre and post QRI assessments. The same assessment was given for both pre and post. The average increase in QRI score for research classrooms was .95 while the average increase for the control classroom was .44 While this is a positive outcome, there is simply not enough data to conduct meaningful statistical analysis, and the results may be skewed by in-person versus online instructional methods. The data collected from a small research sample size were insufficient to show a large difference between research and control classrooms for this objective. Thus, the results for Objective 2 are inconclusive. Objective 3 Qualitative Data Because of the pandemic, in-person classroom observations were not possible. In lieu of observations, teachers submitted a pre and post lesson plan or unit plan. Additional qualitative data for this objective was gathered via a Qualtrics online questionnaire administered to teachers before and after using Science Your Way as well as pre- and post Zoom interviews. Phase II research validates that Science Your Wayallows teachers to more easily integrate informational texts into their science curriculums and to address both NGSS and Common Core standards simultaneously. This was shown in qualitative data by all three teachers integrating more informational texts with their standards-aligned science instruction using Science Your Way than they did without it. Objective 4 Quantitative Data Product support email and phone call logs were kept for each of the three participants. Emails or phone calls regarding research protocols were not tracked. Phase II research validates that Science Your Way allows teachers to effectively use the platform after experiencing online professional development with little email and phone support follow up required. All three teachers were able to learn how to use the Science Your Way platform by viewing short online demonstration videos. Research recorded only one email requesting support for performing an action that was already explained in a video. Objective 5 Results and Discussion The current COVID pandemic prevented sufficient software evaluation sites to generate the testing sample sizes which would be necessary for a definitive impact estimation. The indicators available, however, consistently point towards an expectation of positive impacts from the deployment and utilization of StarrMatica Science Your Way software. Recent economic literature on the effects of "Value-added" teaching on student lifetime earnings, the costs and motivating factors of teacher relocation, and the macro-economic effects of improved STEM educational outcomes, coupled with even the limited student evaluative data and anecdotal instructor observations generated in this study, lead to an expectation (albeit, not a conclusion) of positive economic benefits from the deployment and utilization of Science Your Way software. Objective 5 was inconclusive. The data collected from a small research sample size were insufficient to show definitive economic impacts; however, positive responses from all participating instructors and positive evaluations of all participating classrooms supports further investigation. Research Results Summary Even without a large sample size, qualitative and anecdotal data from all three participants support the conclusion that Science Your Way is a valuable resource, particularly for rural teachers, who need informational text resources that are already aligned with both Common Core ELA standards and the NGSS and that can be customized to meet the reading level needs of each of their students.

Publications

Progress 09/15/19 to 09/14/20

Outputs
Target Audience:The envisioned product enables an instructional approach that improves student informational text comprehension, allows individualized instruction for students of diverse reading abilities, and facilitates the simultaneous instruction of NGSS and Common Core ELA standards. This unique combination of features will provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace--especially for rural schools on tight budgets. They must invest in products that provide lasting comprehensive value, that are effective, and that address multiple needs. The customers are expected to be curriculum directors, elementary principals, and elementary teachers who are seeking to 1) increase informational text instructional time per the Common Core requirements, 2) find supplementary materials that support the NGSS, and 3) increase informational text reading comprehension abilities at all grade levels. Increasing informational text comprehension abilities for students is important to both teachers and administrators because it will also raise English Language Arts standardized test scores to which they are both now held accountable (Allen, 2006; Appleton, 2007; Center on Educational Policy, 2008; Crocco & Costigan, 2007). This product also addresses rural funding and curriculum issues by offering a solution that allows teachers to address two sets of standards simultaneously and to customize informational texts to meet the varied reading abilities and comprehension needs found in rural classrooms. StarrMatica's initial target market is rural school districts, with over 9.1 million students and ~916,000 classrooms. Digital instructional content had annual sales of more than $3 billion, and accounted for 56.8% of all K-12 instructional materials purchased in 2016. Our product's digital delivery, ability to meet multiple curricular goals, and alignment with Common Core and Next-Generation Science Standards make it uniquely relevant and valuable for meeting the needs of rural schools. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Plans for the next reporting period for each of the project's five objectives follows: Objective 1: Based on teacher feedback, development for this objective during the next reporting period will include: 1) Creating a "blinking" star to prompt students when it is time to view an instructional support and not allowing students to move forward until it has been viewed. 2) Adding a science focused writing prompt to the activity that accompanies each text 3) Adding Google Account User Upload integration 4) Adding more detailed scoring features Research for this objective during the next reporting period will include: Researcher Dana Atwood Blaine will conduct a "pre-observation" of the twelve research teachers using an informational text of their choice during science instruction and will conduct a "post-observation" using StarrMatica Texts: Science Your Way during science instruction. (Note: Six of the pre-observations have already been completed though the qualitative data has not yet been analyzed.) Specifically, for this objective, the researcher will be looking for instances of customization or differentiation of the text for learners with different reading comprehension skill levels. The observations will be followed by in-person interviews and an online post-use questionnaire. The focus of the questionnaire for this objective will be to determine the following: 1) how useable and/or "user friendly" the System seemed in general, and 2) how well the System supported the teacher's efforts to customize/differentiate for learners of varying skill levels. The interviews will be video recorded, uploaded to NVIVO, coded, and analyzed for important themes. Pre-use and post-use interview and questionnaire results will be compared and qualitative data will be reported. Objective 2:The research teachers will be trained on the program and will use it for the remainder of the school year. In May, students in research and control classrooms will once again be given the QRI informational text assessment for their grade level. The data will be analyzed and compared using the method described in the objective. Objective 3:Researcher Dana Atwood Blaine will conduct a "pre-observation" of the remaining six research teachers. All observations will be followed by an interview to clarify and expand on observational data. Dana will also conduct a "post-observation" of all teachers using StarrMatica Texts: Science Your Way during science instruction. Specifically, for this objective, the researcher will be looking for alignment of instruction to the NGSS standards in the relevant grade level. These observations will also be followed by in-person interviews. Both pre and post interviews will be video recorded, uploaded to NVIVO, coded, and analyzed for important themes. Pre-use and post-use observation and interview results will be compared and qualitative data will be reported. Objective 4:Six of the year two teachers will watch the professional development videos and have access to the user manual after their pre-observation is complete. They will also complete a professional development survey that will be used to improve the online PD. Data on customer support requests will be collected for the remainder of the study, and data from both groups (in person PD and online PD) will be compared. Objective 5:The socio-economic consultant will be using post questionnaire data and research data to calculate impact ranges based upon reasonable estimates of product adoption, existing research-based estimates of instructional impacts on student outcomes and standardized test scores, student outcomes and school quality measures on rural retention and in-migration, the effects of accumulated human capital on rural incomes, and individual income expectations relative to teacher qualifications and student academic outcomes.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? It is estimated that 86% of the reading and writing in adulthood is focused on nonfiction (Atkinson, Matusevich, & Huber, 2009). Success in schooling, career, and society depends on our ability to comprehend nonfiction, or "informational text" (Duke 2004). Yet, according to Levy (1993), "nearly 44 million American adults cannot extract evena single piece of informationfrom a written textifany inference orbackground knowledge is required." Research shows that comprehension of informational text is a consistent problem throughout schooling. A 2001 ACT study found that only 24% of the students who take the ACT test can read a college-level science text (Coleman, 2011). The results of the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that nearly two-thirds of U.S. fourth graders can only read at or below a basic level (The Nation's Report Card, 2015). This number has not changed significantly in the last 15 years. Researchers found that on the 2009 NAEP test, fourth grade students scored worse on informational text than on literary passages - with students eligible for free lunch scoring the worst on informational texts (Baker et al., 2011). Because beginning readers are primarily exposed to fiction, when they enter fourth grade and begin to read more content area informational text, they have difficulty with comprehension (McNamara, Ozuru, & Floyd, 2011; Meyer & Ray, 2011). Comprehending informational text requires a different set of strategies than students use for fiction. Researchers have even identified a "fourth grade slump," and they attribute it to issues with comprehending informational text (Biancarosa & Snow, 2006; Chall & Jacobs, 2003; Sanacore & Palumbo, 2009). Improving elementary education from the outset by more effectively supporting elementary teachers in informational text instruction can have lasting effects on the preparedness of rural workforces to meet the employment demands of technology firms rural communities are seeking to attract. Today's teachers must address the needs of an increasingly diverse population of students--ranging from those who enter their classrooms reading at many years below grade level to those who are many years above grade level. This discrepancy is often the most profound in our rural school districts because they have the highest child poverty rates in the county (USDA Economic Research Service, 2016). When a child in poverty enters kindergarten, there are already significant achievement gaps. This makes schools even more important in rural areas to address reading achievement gaps, even when they face more isolation, limited access to support services, and lack of funding in part because of lower student enrollments (Population Reference Bureau, 2009). StarrMatica Texts: Science Your Wayaddresses these rural issues by allowing the customization of informational texts to meet the varied reading abilities and comprehension needs found in rural classrooms. Teachers are able to customize each science text to teach specific text structures,comprehension skills, and Common Core ELA standards at multiple Lexile reading levels. (A Lexile level is a number assigned to a reading passage that indicates the difficulty of the text.) The product's customization options allow a teacher to address individualized learning needs. All students can read the same subject matter via text that has been modified to be at their individual reading levels. This is highly significant, because the informational text found in science textbooks and other supplementary readers is often too difficult for students; consequently, students don't learn any of the content. With StarrMatica Texts: Science Your Way all students are able to learn science concepts because the text has been adjusted so that they can read it. Customization also means the product can be flexible to meet the needs of each unique classroom across the country. A summary of the research completed to date and the results for each of the five objectives are as follows: Objective 1: Throughout years one and two, texts have been added to the system toward the final goal of one text for each K-5 NGSS Performance Expectation. Enhancements proposed in our Phase II application have been completed including: highlighting words for kindergarten and first grade texts, increasing all texts from three Lexile levels to six, and adding an accompanying activity to each text. In year one, six teachers were trained, used the program, and completed a feedback questionnaire. Based on that feedback, two product additions were made: 1) The comprehension instructional supports have been fully aligned with the post-reading quiz questions. 2) A preview of the instructional supports was added. In year two, twelve teachers have completed an online questionnaire to gather baseline data about teachers' practices and challenges regarding informational texts. Teachers were also interviewed face-to-face. The baseline data once again revealed that the main obstacles to differentiating instruction using informational texts in the classroom are: 1) It takes too much time and/or money to find and acquire appropriate text resources; and 2) It is difficult to find text resources on the appropriate topics at a range of reading levels. Objective 2:The twelve teachers currently participating in the research group have given their students the QRI informational text assessment for their grade level. The five teachers participating as control classrooms (one for each grade level) have also given the assessment. The "pre-test" data has not yet been analyzed. Objective 3:Researcher, Dana Atwood Blaine, has begun pre-observations with the twelve research teachers using an informational text of their choice during science instruction. Six pre-observations have been completed. The qualitative data from these has not yet been analyzed. Objective 4:The six teachers from the Year One usability study received in person professional development and their customer support requests are being tracked. Thus far, we have only recorded four questions from the in-person PD group. The teachers also completed a professional development survey. Based on survey feedback and the in-person materials, professional development videos and a user manual were created to train teachers on the use of the texts via a self-paced course. Objective 5:The socio-economic consultant has completed his external research of academic literature in education and human capital development, and income and industry multiplier data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Publications

Progress 09/15/18 to 09/14/19

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Teachers participaing in the usability and validity studies received training on how to use StarrMatica Texts:Science Your Way. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Objective 1 plans for the next reporting period: Based on teacher feedback, development for this objective during the next reporting period will include: 1) Creating a "blinking" star to prompt students when it is time to view an instructional support and not allowing students to move forward until it has been viewed. 2) Adding a science focused writing prompt to the activity that accompanies each text 3) Adding Google Account User Upload integration 4) Adding more detailed scoring features Research for this objective during the next reporting period will include: Researcher Dana Atwood Blaine will conduct a "pre-observation" of the twelve research teachers using an informational text of their choice during science instruction and will conduct a "post-observation" using StarrMatica Texts: Science Your Way during science instruction. (Note: Six of the pre-observations have already been completed though the qualitative data has not yet been analyzed.) Specifically, for this objective, the researcher will be looking for instances of customization or differentiation of the text for learners with different reading comprehension skill levels. The observations will be followed by in-person interviews and an online post-use questionnaire. The focus of the questionnaire for this objective will be to determine the following: 1) how useable and/or "user friendly" the System seemed in general, and 2) how well the System supported the teacher's efforts to customize/differentiate for learners of varying skill levels. The interviews will be video recorded, uploaded to NVIVO, coded, and analyzed for important themes. Pre-use and post-use interview and questionnaire results will be compared and qualitative data will be reported. Objective 2 plans for the next reporting period: The research teachers will be trained on the program and will use it for the remainder of the school year. In May, students in research and control classrooms will once again be given the QRI informational text assessment for their grade level. The data will be analyzed and compared using the method described in the objective. Objective 3 plans for the next reporting period: Researcher Dana Atwood Blaine will conduct a "pre-observation" of the remaining six research teachers. All observations will be followed by an interview to clarify and expand on observational data. Dana will also conduct a "post-observation" of all teachers using StarrMatica Texts: Science Your Way during science instruction. Specifically, for this objective, the researcher will be looking for alignment of instruction to the NGSS standards in the relevant grade level. These observations will also be followed by in-person interviews. Both pre and post interviews will be video recorded, uploaded to NVIVO, coded, and analyzed for important themes. Pre-use and post-use observation and interview results will be compared and qualitative data will be reported. Objective 4 plans for the next reporting period: Six of the year two teachers will watch the professional development videos and have access to the user manual after their pre-observation is complete. They will also complete a professional development survey that will be used to improve the online PD. Data on customer support requests will be collected for the remainder of the study, and data from both groups (in person PD and online PD) will be compared. Objective 5 plans for the next reporting period: The socio-economic consultant will be using post questionnaire data and research data to calculate impact ranges based upon reasonable estimates of product adoption, existing research-based estimates of instructional impacts on student outcomes and standardized test scores, student outcomes and school quality measures on rural retention and in-migration, the effects of accumulated human capital on rural incomes, and individual income expectations relative to teacher qualifications and student academic outcomes.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1 Results: Throughout year one, texts have been added to the system toward the final goal of one text for each K-5 NGSS Performance Expectation. Enhancements proposed in our Phase II application have been completed including: highlighting words for kindergarten and first grade texts, increasing all texts from three Lexile levels to six, and adding an accompanying activity to each text. In year one, six teachers were trained, used the program, and completed a feedback questionnaire. Based on that feedback, two product additions were made: 1) The comprehension instructional supports have been fully aligned with the post-reading quiz questions. 2) A preview of the instructional supports was added. In year two, twelve teachers have completed an online questionnaire to gather baseline data about teachers' practices and challenges regarding informational texts. Teachers were also interviewed face-to-face. The baseline data once again revealed that the main obstacles to differentiating instruction using informational texts in the classroom are: 1) It takes too much time and/or money to find and acquire appropriate text resources; and 2) It is difficult to find text resources on the appropriate topics at a range of reading levels. Objective 2 Results: The twelve teachers currently participating in the research group have given their students the QRI informational text assessment for their grade level. The five teachers participating as control classrooms (one for each grade level) have also given the assessment. The "pre-test" data has not yet been analyzed. Objective 3 Results: Researcher, Dana Atwood Blaine, has begun pre-observations with the twelve research teachers using an informational text of their choice during science instruction. Six pre-observations have been completed. The qualitative data from these has not yet been analyzed. Objective 4 Results: The six teachers from the Year One usability study received in person professional development and their customer support requests are being tracked. Thus far, we have only recorded four questions from the in-person PD group. The teachers also completed a professional development survey. Based on survey feedback and the in-person materials, professional development videos and a user manual were created to train teachers on the use of the texts via a self-paced course. Objective 5 Results: The socio-economic consultant has completed his external research of academic literature in education and human capital development, and income and industry multiplier data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Publications