A cluster-randomized trial examined the Year 1 effects of a three-year professional development program for math teachers, the Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) 3-5 Program, on third through fifth graders’ achievement in fractions learning.
The study involved 149 teachers in grades 3-5 from 31 schools in 9 districts in Florida who were assigned randomly to the CGI condition or to a wait-list control group. Teachers in the CGI group participated in workshops on number operations, and algebraic thinking, with a focus on fractions. These workshops took place over 5 days in the summer, 2 in the fall, and 2 in the winter. The training focused on math problem types and student strategies and included teacher-student interactions where teachers applied what they learned, with later reflection and sharing with colleagues. Teachers in the control group continued with business-as-usual instruction.
Students were pre- and posttested using the Elementary Mathematics Student Assessment. Results showed that students of teachers in the CGI program outperformed the control group at post-test (ES=+0.19), which authors cited as a medium effect size equivalent to 1/5 of a school year in grade 3, and 1/3 of a school year in grades 4 and 5. A cost analysis, using Kraft’s schema to relate effect size to program cost, yielded a low per-student cost of $137.25. While CGI 3-5 is designed to be a 3-year program, this study provides important evidence of its one-year effects.
Source: Schoen, R. C., LaVenia, M., Tazaz, A. M., Gersten, R., & Smolkowski, K. (2024). Effects of a mathematics teacher professional development program on grades 3–5 student achievement: A multisite cluster-randomized trial. The Elementary School Journal, 125(2), 322–346. https://doi.org/10.1086/732783