Virginia Mathematics Teacher Spring 2017

observations, then finally formulate an abstract conceptualization that is at the heart of Algebra. The ELC in Bob’s words, “…helps kids create a conceptual language by first grounding mathematics in the daily life and culture they understand” (Checkley, 2001). Specifically, the Algebra Project, Inc. has created materials for use in high school and collegiate level algebra classes that focus specifically on exploration of integers, equations, functions, function representations, and properties of functions. These materials are contained in the Algebra Project’s Trip Line and Road Coloring modules. Methods Overview The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if the use of the Algebra Project pedagogy in Algebra 1 classrooms had a significant effect on the achievement results of students enrolled in Algebra 1 courses at an urban high school in central Virginia. Significance was measured at the p < .05 level. Assumptions According to the Virginia Department of Education, all students who graduate from a Virginia Public School must have successfully completed three mathematics courses at or above the level of algebra, and must have one verified credit in mathematics which is earned by successfully passing a mathematics Standard of Learning (SOL) test in the areas of Algebra 1, Geometry, or Algebra 2, which requires a scaled score between 400 and 600 (VDOE, 2016). The students who participated in this study were homogeneous as each participant was enrolled in an Algebra 1 course at the only high school in the school district. Every student was enrolled in 9 th grade and did not have a verified credit in mathematics at the time of testing. Each student was taught by a teacher with at least three years of experience, and every teacher was trained in both traditional methods and AP pedagogy. The teachers each had classes taught by traditional methods and classes taught using the AP methods. It is assumed that there were no other significant differences in the participants or the instructors who taught the courses. Participants The target population for this study was

Algebra 1 students in urban school districts. A sample of 152 participants was obtained from students registered in Algebra 1 courses at the only high school in an urban school district in central Virginia. The majority of the students were African-American with a small mixture of other ethnic groups. The school district has traditionally not met achievement benchmarks on the Virginia Algebra 1 Standards of Learning test, and many students have had trouble passing state mathematics tests in subsequent courses. Every participant in the target frame was enrolled in Algebra 1 for either the first or second time. A convenience sample was used for this study, as the participants in this study attended school in the same urban school district in which the researcher worked. Several of the participants were students in the researcher’s classes and were included in the study in order to reach the target sample size and because of the ease of access to the students’ achievement data. The participants were divided into three groups for the purpose of this study: Group A(experimental group) and Groups B and C (control groups). Group A was enrolled in an Algebra 1 course that was taught using the Algebra Project pedagogy as the main curriculum. Group B was enrolled in an Algebra 1 course that was taught using traditional methods of teaching which did not involve the Algebra Project curriculum. Group C was enrolled in an Algebra 1 course that was taught using traditional methods, however, these students were tested in the Spring of 2007, while groups A and B tested in the Fall of 2008. Variables The dependent variable in this study was the students’ achievement. For the purposes of this study, achievement was measured by the students’ scaled score on the Virginia Algebra 1 SOL test. The Algebra 1 SOL test was separated into four strands, which were Expressions and Operations, Relations and Functions, Equations and Inequalities, and Statistics. These strands assessed students’ understanding of the basic algebraic functions, such as linear and quadratic functions, and their properties, along with solving multi-step equations and inequalities, and using matrices to solve a set of simultaneous linear equations. There was no pretest given at the beginning of the course;

Virginia Mathematics Teacher vol. 43, no. 2

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