According to international and national assessments, US secondary school students struggle with math. Together with policymakers, specialists, and a team from the University of San Diego California, the San Diego Unified School District planned a four-year intervention based on the Changing the Odds (CTO) program. Aimed to improve students’ math performance, this teacher-centered program provided help in identifying students’ math learning needs and in designing interventions addressing these needs.
In 2015, four low-performing middle school of the San Diego Unified School District were appointed to implement the CTO program for four years, while four schools were matched for comparison on achievement and demographics. The four-year program provided materials for teaching and professional development; support for co-teaching, co-planning lessons, and in assessing tests; opportunities for collaboration between schools; and a yearly Summer School. A recent NBER working paper evaluated the impact of Changing the Odds through a difference-in-difference approach.
Because the testing system in California changed, math achievement was measured by the California Standard Test before the intervention, and by the Californian Smarter Balanced test during the research. Combining the two tests on a common metric, the results suggest a positive effect of the Changing the Odds program, with an average effect size of +0.11 per year, in a range that goes from around 0.00 (Year 1) until +0.14 (Year 4). Larger samples could provide more information about the efficacy of specific aspects of the program and the potential contextual moderators of the effects.
