CRESPAR Report #20: Implementing a Highly Specified Curricular, Instructional, and Organizational School Design in a High-Poverty, Urban Elementary School -- Three Year Results

Abstract

In Talent Development Middle Schools, students needing extra help in mathematics participate in the Computer- and Team-Assisted Mathematics Acceleration (CATAMA) course. CATAMA is an innovative combination of computer-assisted instruction and structured cooperative learning that students receive in addition to their regular math course for about ten weeks of the school year. This report presents two studies of CATAMA. The first compares growth in math achievement for 96 seventh graders, 48 of whom participated in CATAMA for ten weeks and 48 of whom were students of similar prior achievement who attended a comparison school where CATAMA is not offered. The second study reports data from interviews with CATAMA participants and observations of the program in action. Growth in mathematics procedures achievement was about one-half a standard deviation higher for CATAMA participants than for students in the comparison sample.