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National Geographic Society Alliance Study: Eighth-Grade Geography

 
 
Product Description  This study was conducted to determine if participation in the National Geographic Society Alliance positively impacted student achievement.

This study compared the achievement of students of Alliance teachers with a carefully matched sample of students who had taken the 2001 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) geography assessment.  

Eighth-grade Alliance teachers from various states across the country were recruited by McREL to participate in the study.  In the end, 62 teachers from 18 states participated, along with their students. These students were tested on their geography knowledge using a set of items from the 2001 NAEP geography assessment.

McREL staff compared the results from this test with the results of a sample of students drawn from NAEP data. The NAEP students were randomly selected from the larger dataset in order to achieve a sample whose demographic characteristics were similar to those of the students in the Alliance test-taking group.

Authors  Kerry Englert & Zoe Barley
Target Audience  Geography teachers, aministrators, and staff developers
Ways to Use this Product  As a tool for understanding the impact of a professional development program
Key Ideas  
McREL researchers were able to determine that, overall, students of teachers who have been involved in the NGS Alliance program have statistically significant higher levels of achievement when compared with students of similar demographic backgrounds from a NAEP sample.
How to Get this Product  View/Download the PDFs:

APA Citation  Englert, K., & Barley, Z. (2002). National Geographic Society eighth-grade geography study. Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.