By Hiroyuki Yamada
This study is the final installment of a three-part series in which Hiroyuki Yamada, a researcher with Curriculum Associates, first developed a measure of learning growth for students entering first grade in fall 2021 from a national sample of over 6,000 schools using Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready Diagnostic for Mathematics, a web-based adaptive interim assessment tool designed to measure four domains of mathematical skills. He then examined variations in learning growth across schools, focusing on commonly measured school attributes that may relate to learning growth.
In this final report, Yamada extends his prior analysis to include Grade 3 and concludes that the following findings still hold true:
- Learning growth is greatest in the first half of students’ first-grade year, and this initial growth appears to slow as the school year progresses.
- Assessments of Algebra and Algebraic Thinking skills are the greatest predictors of student growth.
- Schools’ learning growth changes from year to year.
- The relationships between schools’ learning growth and school characteristics like location and demographic composition are unclear.
However, the additional year of data led to new understandings in some key areas:
- The third year of data highlighted that schools with higher-than-average learning growth struggle to maintain this level of growth year to year.
- Yamada’s prior study of Grades 1 and 2 revealed that disparities in student growth persist across school years, and his analysis of Grade 3 showed small but significant indications that this grade may be a critical window during which learning gaps can widen.
- For third-grade students, higher fall diagnostic scores were associated to some degree with larger growth over the school year.
- Third graders who had placed on or above grade level in Grade 1 demonstrated accelerated growth in Grade 3, whereas others showed slower growth.