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Empirical Releases Final Report on HMH Fuse™ iPad App

Today Empirical and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt made the following announcement. You can download the report and research summary from the study using the links below.
Fuse research report
Fuse research summary

Study Shows HMH Fuse™ iPad® App Can Dramatically Improve Student Achievement

Strong implementation in Riverside Unified School District associated with nine-point increase in percentile standing

BOSTON – April 10, 2012 – A study of HMH Fuse: Algebra 1 app released today by research firm Empirical Education Inc. identifies implementation as a key factor in the success of mobile technology. The 2010–2011 study was a pilot of a new educational app from global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) that re-imagines the conventional textbook to fully deploy interactive features of the mobile device. The HMH Fuse platform encourages the use of personalized lesson plans by combining direct instruction, ongoing support, assessment and intervention in one easy-to-use suite of tools.

Empirical found that the iPad-using students in the four participating districts: Long Beach, Fresno, San Francisco and Riverside Unified School District (Riverside Unified), performed on average as well as their peers using the traditional textbook. However, after examining its own results, Riverside Unified found an increase in test scores among students taught with HMH Fuse compared to their peers. Empirical corroborated these results, finding a statistically significant impact equivalent to a nine-point percentile increase. The Riverside Unified teachers also reported substantially greater usage of the HMH Fuse app both in teaching and by the students in class.

“Education technology does not operate in a vacuum, and the research findings reinforce that with a supportive school culture and strategic implementation, technology can have a significant impact on student achievement,” said Linda Zecher, President and CEO of HMH. “We’re encouraged by the results of the study and the potential of mobile learning to accelerate student achievement and deepen understanding in difficult to teach subjects like algebra.”

Across all districts, the study found a positive effect on student attitudes toward math, and those students with positive attitudes toward math achieved higher scores on the California Standards Test.

The research design was a “gold standard” randomized control trial that examined the performance of eighth-grade students during the 2010-2011 school year. Each teacher’s classes were randomly assigned to either the treatment group that used the HMH Fuse app or the control group that used the conventional print format of the same content.

“The rapid pace of mobile technology’s introduction into K-12 education leaves many educators with important questions about its efficacy especially given their own resources and experience,” said Denis Newman, CEO of Empirical Education. “The results from Riverside highlight the importance of future research on mobile technologies that account for differences in teacher experience and implementation.”

To access the full research report, go to www.empiricaleducation.com. A white paper detailing the implementation and impact of HMH Fuse in Riverside is available on the HMH website.

Join Empirical Education at ALAS, AEA, and NSDC

This year, the Association of Latino Administrators & Superintendents (ALAS) will be holding its 8th annual summit on Hispanic Education in San Francisco. Participants will have the opportunity to attend speaker sessions, roundtable discussions, and network with fellow attendees. Denis Newman, CEO of Empirical Education, together with John Sipe, Senior Vice President and National Sales Manager at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Jeannetta Mitchell, eight-grade teacher at Presidio Middle school and a participant in the pilot study, will take part in a 30-minute discussion reviewing the study design and experiences gathered around a one-year study of Algebra on the iPad. The session takes place on October 13th at the Salon 8 of the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco from 10:30am to 12:00pm.

Also this year, the American Evaluation Association (AEA) will be hosting its 25th annual conference from November 2–5 in Anaheim, CA. Approximately 2,500 evaluation practitioners, academics, and students from around the globe are expected to gather at the conference. This year’s theme revolves around the challenges of values and valuing in evaluation.

We are excited to be part of AEA again this year and would like to invite you to join us at two presentations. First, Denis Newman will be hosting the roundtable session on Returning to the Causal Explanatory Tradition: Lessons for Increasing the External Validity of Results from Randomized Trials. We examine how the causal explanatory tradition—originating in the writing of Lee Cronbach—can inform the planning, conduct and analysis of randomized trials to increase external validity of findings. Find us in the Balboa A/B room on Friday, November 4th from 10:45am to 11:30am.

Second, Valeriy Lazarev and Denis Newman will present a paper entitled, “From Program Effect to Cost Savings: Valuing the Benefits of Educational Innovation Using Vertically Scaled Test Scores And Instructional Expenditure Data.”

Be sure to stop by on Saturday, November 5th from 9:50am to 11:20am in room Avila A.

Furthermore, Jenna Zacamy, Senior Research Manager at Empirical Education, will be presenting on two topics at the National Staff Development Council (NSDC) annual conference taking place in Anaheim, CA from December 3rd to 7th. Join her on Monday, December 5th at 2:30pm to 4:30pm when she will talk about the impact on student achievement for grades 4 through 8 of the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative, together with Pamela Finney and Jean Scott from SERVE Center at UNCG.

On Tuesday, December 6th at 10:00am to 12:00pm Jenna will discuss prior and current research on the effectiveness of a large-scale high school literacy reform together with Cathleen Kral from WestEd and William Loyd from Washtenaw Intermediate School District.

New Education Pilot Brings Apple’s iPad Into the Classroom

Above: Empirical Education President Denis Newman converses with Secretary Bonnie Reiss and author, Dr. Edward Burger

They’re not contest winners, but today, dozens of lucky 8th grade Algebra 1 students enthusiastically received new iPad devices, as part of a pilot of the new technology.

California Secretary of Education Bonnie Reiss joined local officials, publishers, and researchers at Washington Middle School in Long Beach for the kick-off. Built around this pilot is a scientific study designed to test the effectiveness of a new iPad-delivered Algebra textbook. Over the course of the new school year, Empirical Education researchers will compare the effect of the interactive iPad-delivered textbook to that of its conventional paper counterpart.

The new Algebra I iPad Application is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and features interactive lessons, videos, quizzes, problem solving, and more. While students have to flip pages in a traditional textbook to reveal answers and explanations, students using the iPad version will be able to view interactive explanations and study guides instantly by tapping on the screen. Researchers will be able to study data collected from usage logs to enhance their understanding of usage patterns.

Empirical Education is charged with conducting the study, which will incorporate the performance of over twelve hundred students from four school districts throughout California, including Long Beach, San Francisco, Riverside, and Fresno. Researchers will combine measures of math achievement and program implementation to estimate the new program’s advantage while accounting for the effects of teacher differences and other influences on implementation and student achievement. Each participating teacher has one randomly selected class using the iPads while the other classes continue with the text version of the same material.

Though the researchers haven’t come up with a way of dealing with jealousy from students who will not receive an iPad, they did come up with a fair way to choose the groups who would use the new high tech program. Classes who received iPads were determined by a random number generator.