Study Background

The Center for Research and Reform in Education (CRRE) is a research center affiliated with the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) specializing in K-12 education program evaluations. In 2024, Accelerate Learning contracted with CRRE to conduct a prospective quasi-experimental study on the impact of STEMscopes Science Curriculum on science achievement in Lonestar ISD (an anonymized large school district in Texas), as measured by the STAAR assessment and MAP scores for fifth grade students. This report also includes an analysis of the associations between program usage and achievement.

What We Did

To test the impact of the STEMscopes Science Curriculum on science achievement, we compared STAAR science outcomes for students in all 8 schools using STEMscopes with those in 8 comparison schools using other science curricula (for a total of 990 students). To ensure the comparability of students and schools, comparison schools were selected for inclusion prior to data collection, based on their similarity in prior achievement and student demographics. The study followed both groups during the 2023-24 school year.

 

Key findings

The results of this evaluation show a significant and large positive impact of STEMscopes Science curriculum on students’ science achievement. This outcome offers evidence of the efficacy of STEMscopes which meets ESSA Tier 3 requirements.

• On STAAR, STEMscopes students outscored comparison students by approximately 94 points; this impact was statistically significant (p < .05).
• On MAP, treatment students outscored comparison students by 2.3 points, which approached statistical significance (p < .07). 
• Subgroup analyses did not show that the impacts of STEMscopes varied by student subgroups. 
• Analyses of STEMscopes usage showed that median unique scope usage was significantly positively associated with STAAR science achievement scores. 

8 treatment schools 8 control schools	537 treatment students 453 control students	16 treatment teachers 26 control teachers