Online Classes Accelerate Math for Middle Schoolers, Research Finds
Dian Schaffhauser, T.H.E. Journal

Eighth-graders who take an online Algebra I course score higher on end-of-year algebra assessments than other students who take the standard instructor-led math program offered by their schools and are twice as likely to follow an advanced course sequence in high school as their peers. Those results came out of a multi-year study done in 68 mostly rural schools in Maine and Vermont and could influence decisions by more middle schools to begin offering Algebra I classes.

The research was conducted by a team at Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI), one of 10 laboratories funded through the Institute of Education Sciences at the United States Department of Education to perform research for informing policies and educational practices in the area of improving student achievement.

As described in "Access to Algebra I: The Effects of Online Mathematics for Grade 8 Students," a team of eight researchers randomly assigned a group of volunteer schools in both states to offer either an online Algebra I course to their "algebra-ready" students during the 2008-2009 school year or to serve as a control school by offering their standard math curriculum. At the end of the school year, the researchers collected results of an algebra achievement test and a general math achievement test for each of the 440 students who participated.

In spring 2009 they also collected information from the students about what high schools they planned to attend and which math classes they planned to take. Then the researchers followed them into high school to collect additional data, including which ninth grade math classes they took and what grades they earned and what 10th grade classes they were enrolled in.

"We used that information to determine whether students were participating in an advanced course sequence or not, which was really a proxy for a successful completion of Algebra II by 10th grade, which has been shown in prior research to indicate the likelihood of calculus by the end of high school," explained lead author Jessica Heppen in a short video on the project.

The online course used in the study was provided by Class.com. Students would take the online courses on devices at the back of the classroom during regular math classes. An online instructor would communicate with students via online messages, and students would receive immediate feedback via automated scoring on problem sets and quizzes. Schools would also provide proctors--usually the teacher of the general math class--to support students taking the online course.

The Maine schools made use of the state's one-to-one laptop initiative. Vermont's students used computers provided on a cart or in a lab.

The experiment focused especially on rural schools for a reason. As the researchers pointed out, many public middle schools in rural areas are just small enough to lack the funding, staffing, or enrollment to offer Algebra I to their algebra-ready eighth graders.

Read the results: http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/12/16/online-classes-accelerate-math-for-middle-schoolers-research-finds.aspx