Hello Everyone! Sorry, this post is so delayed. I am new to the Holler this year and there was a major miscommunication between my partner and myself in regards to posting about our project. However, they say its better late than never so here it is.

Ashland Middle School’s (AMS) project this year revolves around implementing two computer science courses and measuring their impact on student performance in mathematics. To measure this impact, we are comparing the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) math scores of participating students against their nonparticipating peers. To reduce external factors that could skew our data, we are limiting individual comparisons to only compare peers that take the same five core classes and perform in the same ability range prior to taking the course. If the computer science courses are having their desired impact, participating students should show an increase in mathematical performance and rate of growth when compared with their peers.

While I currently do not have enough data to draw any logical conclusions about increased math performance, this program has provided success in a different realm. Students that have participated in our new “App Creators” computer science course are among a group of students that have been named state champions in a national contest called Samsung Solve for Tomorrow. Based partially on an app they have created, students have already won the school $20,000 and are still in the running for the grand prize of $100,000. Once I am able to truly dig into the data, I will provide more details about our conclusions and I will provide updates about the Samsung contest as well. Thanks for reading!