Evaluation of the Time To Know NYC Five School Program

Introduction

Building on a series of internationally recognized research studies evaluating the impact of educational technology, Boston College has recently partnered with Time to Know and New York City Public Schools on a yearlong study of Time To Know, the world's first digital teaching platform.

This study examines the impact of the Time To Know (T2K) educational program on teaching and learning across fourth grade classrooms in five New York City elementary schools. The T2K program is a digital teaching platform for 1:1 student laptop classrooms and is made up of an interactive core curriculum of math and English Language Arts (ELA).

For this study, Boston College researchers are using a pre/post matched comparison group design to address the potential variety of outcomes in using the T2K program. Teacher and student practices across the five schools will be documented throughout this 13-month period and compared with student and teacher practices in matched comparison/control classrooms (where no additional technology resources have been leveraged).

The study serves two underlying objectives. The first objective addresses formative issues and focuses on the fidelity of the implementation of the project. It includes data collection and analysis to inform ongoing efforts across each of the participating classrooms. The second objective addresses summative impact. The evaluation will document the extent to which participants have used the spectrum of T2K resources and will examine the summative impact these resources have on teacher and student practices.

Research Focus

Evaluation of the student outcomes will examine the impact of the T2K program across measures of:

• Students' learning practices in school and at home
• Student motivation and engagement in the classroom
• Student achievement patterns and performance
• Student attendance, student behavior, and other classroom and school-based student records.

Evaluation of the teacher-level project outcomes will examine the impact of the T2K program on:

• Teachers' various instructional practices in school over time
• Teachers' attitudes and beliefs towards pedagogy, technology use, and overall satisfaction
• Teachers' impression and feedback on the various components (such as professional development, student assessments and multimedia curricular content) of the T2K program.

The Schools

Working with T2K, the New York City public schools' district selected the five schools participating in the T2K program and subsequent evaluation study—one from each of New York City's five boroughs. This selection of schools highlights the variety of educational settings across some of New York City's most distinct neighborhoods. For each of the T2K public schools, analyses of demographic data and student assessment scores were used to select comparison schools in each neighborhood, where traditional approaches to teaching and learning were present. Based on these recommendations, five additional public elementary schools were successfully recruited to participate as comparison schools in the study.

Project Links
Time To Know company website

New York City Department of Education

News Links

General:
"Learning Management Systems: A Tool for Its Time", July 2010

"iPads innovate education in Massachusetts schools", August 2012

Time To Know:
"Time To Know Aims To Revolutionize The Classroom", February 2010

"McGraw-Hill Education and Time To Know Join Forces", August 2012

NYC Schools:
"Triumph Fades on Racial Gap in City Schools", August 2010

Gallery
See and read about self portraits from the students at the NYC Schools following a request to "draw a picture of yourself learning English or Math) in school".