Streator Elementary School District 44 is a rural district in Streator, Illinois, with 3 elementary schools and 1 secondary school. The district has a current enrollment of over 1,800 students in Grades Pre-K–8. The professional staff includes 114 teachers, with approximately 107 support personnel and administrators.
Streator Elementary School District 44 is eligible for Title I assistance. Seventy-one percent of the students are White and the remaining student body consists of students identified as Hispanic (19%), Black (4%), or other (6%). Sixty-nine percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and 22% have an Individualized Education Program (IEP).
Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) is administered to students in Grades 3–8 in the spring. The test covers subjects such as reading, mathematics, and science. The test measures performance based on the Illinois Curriculum Framework Learning Standards.
At Grades 3–5, the math ISAT comprises multiple choice, short-answer, and open response items covering five domains: Geometry, Measurements and data, Number and Operations in Base Ten, Numbers and Operations in Fractions, and Operations and Algebraic Thinking.
In Illinois, students’ test scores can be categorized into one of four levels of mastery: Level 1: Academic Warning, Level 2: Below Standards, Level 3: Meets Standards, and Level 4: Exceeds Standards. Students scoring at Exceeds and Meets are said to have mastered the Illinois Learning Standards.
To determine if HMH GO Math! had an impact on learning, student ISAT mathematics test scores from the spring of 2013, prior to using the program, and the spring of 2014, after one year of usage, were obtained for Grades 3, 4, 5, and 6. These findings are presented in Figure 1.
The comparison of achievement scores revealed that at all grade levels examined, the percentage of students scoring at Meets Standards or higher was greater in 2014, after using GO Math!, than the previous year with an average gain of over 6%.
This one-year examination of the implementation of GO Math! © 2012 at Streator Elementary School District 44 revealed that the program was associated with increased mathematics achievement.