According to a 2013 joint report from the US Department of Education and the National Science Foundation, there are many ways to approach educational research and the effectiveness of education programs. In fact, there’s an entire “pipeline” from basic exploratory studies to robust efficacy studies. “However,” the report clarifies, “the reality of scientific investigation is more complicated, less orderly, and less linear than such a ‘pipeline’ suggests.”
Our research at HMH spans all parts of the pipeline and is developed with the understanding that the collective evidence of multiple studies paints a powerful picture. Math 180 is our program aimed at intervention students, or students who are performing two or more grades below their current grade level in math. As of this writing, we have 18 published reports on the program’s effectiveness, spanning different implementations and student populations. In this article, I take a closer look at one recent study for a glimpse into research at HMH and what it means to say that a program is research-based.
Inside the Florida Study: What We Measured at Clewiston Middle School
Math 180 has a sturdy foundation, with a research evidence base most recently updated in 2022 but reflecting work that started long before. It spans many aspects of developing a program aimed at improving learning outcomes for math intervention students, such as the theoretical foundations of rigor, data-driven instruction, learning with special populations, and family engagement, along with results from early efficacy research.
Over the 2020–21 school year, we partnered with Clewiston Middle School in Clewiston, Florida to further deepen our understanding of the program’s efficacy. During that time, seventh and eighth grade students scoring in the lowest quartile in math achievement were enrolled in Math 180, and the teachers who were implementing it received training and coaching to ensure the program was being used with fidelity. We examined the effect of Math 180 primarily in two ways: 1) school performance on state assessments, and 2) student performance on interim math assessments.
School Performance on State Assessments
In Florida, student math proficiency is measured using the Florida Statewide Assessment of Mathematics, or FSA. Math success is often discussed in terms of what percent of students scored satisfactory or better, or level 3+ on the FSA.
Largely due to the effects of the pandemic, between 2019 and 2021, the state saw a general trend downwards across middle school students. There was a 10% dip in seventh graders scoring level 3+ and a 9% dip for eighth graders. However, this was not the case for Clewiston Middle School, which implemented Math 180 during the 2020–21 school year. In the same time frame, the percent of seventh graders scoring level 3+ increased by 19% and the share of eighth graders increased by 28%. On the whole, school-wide math proficiency went up!
Student Performance on Interim Math Assessments
At the individual student level, all students additionally took an adaptive HMH-developed assessment for math ability and progress. Assessment results are provided to educators in Quantile measures, a well-established framework that can help to track student growth in math across grade levels and is often indicated using the letter “Q.” Given where students at Clewiston Middle School started at the beginning of the 2020–21 school year, when comparing against national norms, we would have expected seventh graders to grow by 88Q and eighth graders to grow by 72Q. However, according to the report, “Clewiston significantly outperformed those norms with average improvement of 253Q for 7th graders . . . and 176Q for 8th graders.”
Attributing Learning Outcomes to Interventions
The case study of Clewiston Middle School presents two broad pieces of evidence that Math 180 works. When looking at state assessments, math proficiency increased for students who were the most vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic. And when looking at individual student math assessments, the students’ Quantile measures improved beyond what would have been expected. When considered together, these results help to demonstrate a rationale that Math 180 is capable of improving student outcomes.
It is important to reiterate that research conclusions require a compelling story using a collection of evidence, and one case study is one piece of evidence, not conclusive proof. Attributing learning outcomes to a specific program or practice will always be hard to separate from other factors specific to the students and teachers involved. In the case of Math 180, for example, the program is multifaceted, comprising many different components, such as online instruction, consumable materials, assessment tools, educational games, and professional learning.
Perseverance and Problem Solving
The Clewiston Middle School study took place during the 2020–2021 school year — a year that presented extraordinary challenges for students and educators across the country and left more students needing math intervention. Math 180 was built around a straightforward premise: students who keep working through hard problems get better at math, and students who can see that improvement in their own work keep going.
That premise shapes how the program handles struggle. Students work at a level just past what they've already mastered, get feedback in the moment, and track their own progress over the course of the year. Effort becomes something a student can point to, which is what makes persistence stick.
Teachers saw the same effect. Many of the intervention teachers running Math 180 at Clewiston were in their first year. According to the case study, the "nature of the program itself" helped novice teachers "rise to this challenge" — the lesson structure and pacing gave them a clear model to work from while they built their own confidence with math intervention.
Further Research
The work is never done, and researchers at HMH continue to study the effects of Math 180. Studies are currently underway examining different implementation models, additional outcome measures, and deeper dives into specific disabilities such as dyscalculia. In the meantime, if you were trying to raise math achievement for learners who are several years behind grade level, wouldn’t you like Math 180 on your side?
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Math 180 provides proven, research-based intervention that works in core and dedicated intervention classrooms for students in Grades 3–12.
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