Impacts of Study Island on Student Reading Achievement on the NWEA™ MAP©

ESSA Level of Research: 

Moderate Evidence (Quasi-Experimental)

Overall

Use of Study Island has a positive, statistically significant effect on achievement on the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA™) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP©) Assessment. The study compared diverse national samples of users and non-users that have been matched based on prior RIT scores.

Century Analytics conducted this research study to provide a rigorous estimate of the impact of Edmentum's Study Island use on student achievement in reading for students in grades 2-8. The study compared diverse national samples of users and non-users that have been matched on prior RIT scores and the duration between their fall and winter MAP administrations to establish baseline equivalence.

Research Question

What is the impact of Study Island usage between the fall NWEA MAP assessment and winter NWEA MAP assessment on student reading achievement relative to students who do not use Study Island?

Results 

Results of this study suggest that students who use Study Island and complete at least half of the Study Island topics available for their grade level between the fall and winter NWEA MAP administrations will make statistically significant gains in achievement relative to students who do not complete any topics. 

By completing at least half the Study Island topics during the first half of the year, students are on track to work through all topics by the end of the school year and are thus covering a wide range of standards aligned material that is required for their grade and subject. Students who used Study Island achieved MAP scores that ranged from an average of 1.11 points higher for students in 4th grade to 4.37 points higher for students in 2nd grade.

Results suggest that Study Island is providing students with practice in standards-based academic content that improves students' scores on standardized tests.