MCPER has received a $3 million federal grant to test a word problem intervention for third-graders with or at risk for mathematics difficulties.
The new 3-year project—Developing Connections Between Word Problems and Mathematical Equations to Promote Word Problem Performance Among Students With Mathematics Difficulty—will assess whether equation-solving instruction conducted within the context of word problem intervention leads to improved word problem solving for this population of students. Each year, the project will recruit 150 third-grade students with or at risk for mathematics difficulties and provide individual intervention to 100 students. Sarah Powell with serve as principal investigator of the project, with Marcia Barnes as the co-principal investigator, MCPER Associate Director Greg Roberts as the methodologist, and Lynn Fuchs of Vanderbilt University and Jon Star of Harvard University as consultants.
The funding is from the National Center for Special Education Research within the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education.