HOUSTON – Oct. 17, 2017 – For the third consecutive year, Texas school districts using the STEMscopes™ digital science curriculum outperformed other districts on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR™) grade 5 science test. The results, which are part a new study published by Accelerate Learning, show that districts using STEMscopes had higher passing rates on the 2017 test than districts that did not use STEMscopes.
Results from the 2017 STAAR grade 5 science test of more than 387,000 students show that the average passing rate was 69 percent for Texas districts that include fifth grade. Of these, 384 districts used STEMscopes in 2016-17, and 761 districts used a district-created or other science curriculum. The average passing rate was 73 percent for the STEMscopes districts and 68 percent for the non-STEMscopes districts. STEMscopes districts also had higher rates of students who met and mastered grade-level performance standards. In addition, STEMscopes districts had higher passing rates for economically disadvantaged, limited English proficient (LEP), African American, and Latino students compared to districts that did not have STEMscopes.
The study conducted analyses to examine these assessment results while accounting for demographic differences across districts and previous year achievement. The results showed that, after accounting for these important variables, the difference between STEMscopes and non-STEMscopes districts remained significant. Specifically, the use of the STEMscopes curriculum increased the passing rates by 2 percent on the fifth grade STAAR science test.
“Teachers often tell us what a difference STEMscopes makes in students’ engagement and learning. This study shows that our curriculum continues to have a direct and positive impact on tens of thousands of students across Texas,” said Vernon Johnson, president and CEO of Accelerate Learning. “We congratulate all of these teachers on their students’ successes, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with them to make science teaching easy, affordable, and exciting.”
STEMscopes is the most widely used science curriculum in Texas. Incubated at Rice University, STEMscopes Texas was built from the ground up to meet state standards and Next Generation Science Standards. It can be used as a core or supplementary science curriculum in traditional, blended, and 1:1 classrooms.
For more information, visit http://stemscopes.com or call 800-531-0864.
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