Background

This study looked at whether students in Florida do better on the Florida State Assessment Algebra 1 End-of-Course (EOC) exam when their schools have used Math Nation for a longer period of time.

Research Question

Does using Math Nation for more years lead to higher EOC scores?

Breaking It Down: How We Measured Impact

Think of this study like tracking how much a plant grows with regular watering. In our case, the “water” is Math Nation, and the “growth” is student success. We wanted to find out whether students do better on the Algebra 1 EOC when their schools have used Math Nation for more years. To do that, we used a method called regression analysis. Think of it as a way to see if one thing (years using Math Nation) helps predict another (test scores). It’s like asking: “If we know how long a school has used Math Nation, can we get a good idea of how well students performed?” But we also know that other things—like school size, student demographics, or past performance—can affect test scores. We accounted for these factors in our analysis by statistically holding those variables constant. That way, we could be more confident that any differences we saw in EOC scores were really due to Math Nation, not something else, like students at wealthier schools already having an advantage.

What We Found

Yes— the longer schools used Math Nation, the better their students performed on the Algebra 1 exam. These gains weren’t just small improvements; they were meaningful shifts, especially for students at the highest achievement levels.

• Higher test scores with more years of use.
  Every additional year a school used Math Nation was linked with an increase in scale scores and a nearly 3 percentage point increase in the number of students meeting the state proficiency standard.
• More top-performing students.
  Each extra year of use was connected to about a 2.3 percentage point increase in the number of students scoring at Level 5—the highest proficiency level. That might sound small, but at the school level, it could mean dozens more students reaching Level 5 proficiency.
• With sustained use of Math Nation, students move into higher proficiency bands and out of lower proficiency bands.
  Level 4 scores also rose with more Math Nation use (by nearly 2 percentage points per year). At the same time, the number of students scoring just below proficiency (Level 2) decreased by nearly 4% with each year of use.

Why It Matters

A 2–4 point gain in top performance might not sound dramatic, but in education, it’s a big deal. These small percentages often represent real students—sometimes dozens per school—reaching higher achievement levels. Over multiple years, these gains add up and shift the entire school’s performance upward. Importantly, these gains weren’t just random. The patterns were clear, consistent, and statistically significant.

Using Math Nation is a bit like training for a race: the more consistent your training, the better your results. This study shows that schools using Math Nation over several years are seeing more students not just pass—but excel—on the state’s Algebra 1 exam.

What This Means for Schools and Policymakers

• Consistency counts. Sticking with a program like Math Nation for several years pays off.
• Math Nation helps raise the ceiling. The biggest gains were at the top: more students are hitting the highest achievement levels.
• Math Nation is scalable. These are schoolwide results, suggesting real potential for broad impact.