July 2005 — SETDA
Print this article | Email this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
Enhancing Curriculum and Instruction Through Technology
Slow technology distribution. Cognitive Tutor Algebra I is only implemented effectively where there is a one-to-one student-to-computer environment. Some schools were slow to distribute their computers, resulting in a partial implementation of the program.
Content disconnect. Cognitive Tutor is a sequenced, spiraling curriculum that relies on students working through the problems in the Computer Tutor program. In one school, the teacher placed students in selected units in the Computer Tutor based on the district’s adopted text. In this case, the textbook drove the curriculum, and the benefit of the Computer Tutor was not realized because of the disconnect between the tutor program and the textbook.
Uneven support. Some districts in the project had a video conferencing unit from the beginning of the project because of grant money targeted to one county. Other districts outside of the county had to wait for funding from another grant to receive their video conferencing units. As a result, there was uneven support provided to teachers in the project.
These common implementation problems affected the extent to which teachers maintained fidelity with the professional development training they received when they started the program. Based on site visits by the evaluation team, teachers were placed into three groups: those who implemented with fidelity, those who were supplementing with low fidelity, and those who were not implementing the program.
Raw data from the student algebra assessment have arrived, but the statistical analysis of the results has not yet begun. When the student test data, site visit observations, and additional district student data are compiled and analyzed, we will provide a follow-up article describing our results, our judgments concerning the impact of the program, and the effect of implementation problems on student achievement.
Sally Rigeman is a cognitive tutor program
leader and 
Nancy McIntire is coordinator
of quality learning for the Mississippi Bend
Area Education Agency 9 in Bettendorf, IA.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
