[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-583584-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-583584-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","oregon-mesa-improving-grades-in-science-and-mathematics","Oregon MESA - Improving Grades in Science and Mathematics","","Oregon Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) runs afterschool STEM programs for middle and high school students, engaging teams to design, build, evaluate, and present products addressing real-world problems such as sustainable lighting, water filtration, and prosthetics. With grant support, MESA expanded to Salem-Keizer schools to serve underrepresented and low-income students, improving scholastic success, leadership, and support. Education Northwest evaluated impacts using a quasi-experimental matched-sample approach, comparing MESA students with similar peers and finding higher science and mathematics grades.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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Singh, Education Northwest October 31, 2016  \nOregon Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) focuses its afterschool programs with middle and high school students on inventions that address key problems in developing countries, such as sustainable lighting, water transportation, water filtration, and prosthetics. To this end, MESA created four curricular units in which students collaborate to design, build, evaluate, and present a usable product designed for a particular client. For example, some students, working on the prosthetic limb curriculum, designed and built prosthetic arms for children who had lost limbs due to land mines.  \nWith the support of a grant from the Oregon Community Foundation, MESA expanded its afterschool program to four Salem-Keizer Public Schools middle schools in the 2014/15 and 2015/16 school years. The goal of this expansion was to help underrepresented minority and low income students achieve scholastic success, leadership skills, and social support for college enrollment through (1) afterschool STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs led by teachers from the school served; (2) science and technology competitions; (3) family involvement and advocacy; and (4) mentorship by local college students.  \nAt the request of MESA, researchers at Education Northwest conducted an evaluation of the impact of MESA’s afterschool program on the educational outcomes of MESA participants in Salem-Keizer middle schools (referred to as“MESA students”) . To do this, we collected a student-level dataset from Salem-Keizer and examined how participation in MESA affected student outcomes. Specifically, we used statistical methods to identify a comparable group of students with similar characteristics but who did not participate in the MESA program. We then compared these students’ school attendance, test performance, grades, and behavior to those of MESA students.  \nKey Finding: MESA students had higher grades in science and mathematics classes than their peers. We did not detect any other statistically significant differences between MESA students and a matched sample of other students.  \nEDUCATION NORTHWEST | Oregon MESA Improving Grades in Science and Mathematics 1  \nWHAT DID WE DO?  \nWe compared MESA students to a “matched sample” of Salem-Keizer students who did not participate in MESA’s afterschool program but were very similar in other ways to determine the impact that MESA had on participants’school attendance, test scores, grades, and behavior.  \nWhat is a matched sample?  \nA matched sample is a way of creating a rigorous and fair—apples to apples—comparison to determine the impact of a program, such as MESA, on participants. Matching ensures that we are comparing students who had similar demographic characteristics, as well as similar test scores and grades, before they participated in MESA.  \nThe matching method we chose uses a “propensity score” to measure the similarity between students, and, therefore, their likelihood of joining MESA. This is called a “quasi-experimental design,” because instead of an experimental design—which randomly selects which students participate in MESA and which do not—we used statistical methods to identify students who would likely have joined.  \nHowever, unlike random assignment, a matched sample cannot guarantee that all characteristics that could affect student performance are accounted for. While we can test to see if the matched sample of students and MESA students are similar before joining MESA, we cannot do this with characteristics that are not measurable from district datasets, such as student motivation or parent engagement.  \nThis means that the limitation of using matched samples is that we cannot completely attribute differences in student outcomes to the program itself. In other words, we are certain that the students who participated in M","cbCaiv8mHSohHESH","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiv8mHSohHESH","pdf",652383,"English","# Key Finding\n# What Did We Do?\n## Matched Sample Method\n# Why Did We Use Matching?\n## Propensity Score and Quasi-Experimental Design\n## How Students Were Matched","[{\"question\":\"What was the focus of the Oregon MESA afterschool program?\",\"answer\":\"MESA focused on afterschool STEM learning where students collaborate to design, build, evaluate, and present solutions to key problems such as sustainable lighting, water transport and filtration, and prosthetics.\"},{\"question\":\"How did the evaluation compare MESA students with non-participants?\",\"answer\":\"Researchers created a matched sample of Salem-Keizer students who did not participate in MESA but had similar observable characteristics, then compared attendance, test performance, grades, and behavior.\"},{\"question\":\"What were the main results of the impact study?\",\"answer\":\"MESA students had higher grades in science and mathematics classes than their matched peers, while no other statistically significant differences were detected.\"}]","Oregon MESA - Improving Grades in Science and Mathematics | PDF",1792047796,23]