R&D: Cumulative Learning using Embedded Assessment Results (CLEAR)

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Cumulative Learning using Embedded Assessment Results (CLEAR) focuses on the challenge of using assessment of relevant STEM content to improve K-12 teaching and learning. CLEAR takes advantage of new technologies and research findings to investigate ways that science assessments can both capture and contribute to cumulative, integrated learning of standards-based concepts in middle school courses. The project will research new forms of assessment that document students' accumulation of knowledge and also serve as learning events. CLEAR will use cohort and randomized classroom comparisons to determine what combinations of instruction and assessment enable middle school students to gain cumulative understanding of energy concepts in science. CLEAR will study whether the project's approach when used in one course impacts progress in the next. The project will put design principles from across the field to the test by determining which instruction and assessment strategies encourage cumulative understanding and help learners develop integrated ideas about science.Intellectual Merit. There is an urgent need to develop accurate student assessments that measure cumulative knowledge while eliminating the disruptions caused by tests. By measuring students' developing understanding and ongoing efforts to make sense of new materials, the project will be able to foster coherent understanding. The project will do this by making assessment an integral part of computer-based curricula.Broader Impacts. By aligning assessment and instruction around the goal of promoting understanding, the project will demonstrate how to improve learning outcomes for any STEM course. The project will also make courses more effective and efficient by converting assessment from a time-wasting, curriculum-limiting chore into an integral part of learning that fosters the accumulation of concepts across topics and grades. The results of the proposed research will have an important bearing on the design of effective electronic media on promoting student learnig. The project is designed to have a major impact by undertaking the kind of careful, statistically valid research design that leads to reproducible results that can support policy. The project will be able to tailor instruction to specific learners, increasing the impact on students at risk for failure. The partners will continue their practice of widely dissemi-nating findings, materials, and open source software through reviewed papers, popular articles, talks, workshops, a website, and newsletters. The project is led by Marcia C. Linn, Robert Tinker, Kathy Benemann, Hee Sun Lee, Ou Lydia Liu, & James Slotta