Impact of Kami on Student Achievement
Empirical Education conducted a study to evaluate the impact of Kami on student achievement in reading in Moreno Valley Unified School District in the 2022–23 school year. Students in all grades across the district use Kami to create, share, annotate, and collaborate on documents across subject areas. Teachers can use Kami to develop assignments or assessments and share feedback with their students. The main research question is whether usage of Kami has a positive impact on student achievement in reading.
This study used a correlational design aimed at establishing statistical associations between product usage metrics and student outcomes. Unlike experimental and quasiexperimental studies, it does not compare users to similar non-users. It focuses entirely on product users and the differences in outcomes among them that can be attributed to the usage, making appropriate adjustments for differences in users’ individual and class characteristics and pretest scores.
The study found a significant positive association between the use of Kami and student outcomes on the STAR Reading test. Daily usage of Kami during the school year is associated with a 4 percentile test score gain. Most notably, the impact was greater for English language learners (ELL) compared to non-ELL students, and there were no significant differences between students of different races/ethnicities.
The findings were shared widely across the district in the following school year and resulted in an energetic professional learning session with teachers, coaches, and administrators gathering with Kami staff to share best practices and explore new tools and features to support student literacy skills and formative assessment.