ASSISTments

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Dear Parent/Guardian,
ASSISTMENTS EFFICACY STUDY Parent Notification
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Your child’s school is participating in a research study funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. The study, referred to as ASSISTments Efficacy Study, aims at helping all Maine teachers to more effectively use homework to improve student mathematics learning. It focuses on 7th grade mathematics and will last for four years. The study is led by researchers at SRI International in Menlo Park, California, in collaboration with the University of Maine, Orono and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Massachusetts.
During the coming school year, the teacher will use ASSISTments for homework assignments and reviews and your child is expected to complete his/her homework on his/her laptop. ASSISTments is an online learning platform which aims at improving student learning of mathematics. It is offered by WPI, aligned with their mission of research and public service; WPI does not plan to make a profit from ASSISTments. Please refer to the cover letter for more details about ASSISTments. It is important that your child has access to computer and internet at home to be able to do homework on ASSISTments. If you have difficulties using ASSISTments at home, please contact the school to discuss how your child can complete homework.
In order to understand the impact of homework on classroom instruction and student learning, we need to systematically collect data from teachers and students. The data collection that will involve your child during the school year 2013-2014 will include the collection of student’s homework on ASSISTments.
There are minimal risks to your child for participating in this project. Any information collected about your child will be kept separate and apart from other data in our written and computerized records. All information about your child’s name and identities will be kept confidential and only researchers for this project will have access to this information. No student’s name will be used in any published report of this project.
The use of your child’s data in the research is entirely voluntary, has no connection with his or her grades or academic record, and the data resulting from this study will be used for scholarly purposes only. You may request your child’s data not to be used in the research by contacting your child’s principal. Refusal to allow your child’s data to be used in the research will have no impact on your child’s grades or relationship with his or her school.
If this explanation leaves you with any unanswered questions regarding your rights as a research participant, please contact Jeremy Roschelle, the Principal Investigator, at 650-859-3049 or jeremy.roschelle@sri.com. Additional inquiries may be addressed to the Human Subjects Committee, SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025, or 650-859-2686.
Thank you!!
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