ECR Projects

Explore past and current fundamental STEM education research projects across the three research areas that NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program funds, as well as across ECR funding types. Other search filters draw from both NSF's data and the ECR Hub's hand coding of award abstracts.

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Developing, Field-Testing, and Validating An Elementary Algebra Concept Inventory Database For Use In The College Context

Effective Years: 2018-2024

This EHR Core Research Project at Manhattan Community College aims to contribute new knowledge and build new theory about students' understanding of the concepts traditionally learned in a college algebra course. College algebra has consistently been identified as a barrier to student degree progress and completion, particularly for groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields. One part of the barrier to student progress is the lack of validated assessments to measure understanding of algebra concepts. The project will undertake this important work by building a pool of items to assess conceptual understanding and then testing and validating the database at seven different colleges and universities.

The aim of this project is to generate a calibrated item pool of 200 validated questions that assess conceptual understanding in college algebra. This calibrated item pool can then be used by: 1) researchers to assess the effectiveness of curricula and teaching approaches in improving algebraic conceptual understanding; and 2) practitioners to generate diagnostic tests, the results of which could then be used to target instruction to address specific student misconceptions. This research will create the first validated calibrated item pool to test elementary algebra conceptual understanding in the college context. The research builds on initial successful work developing and validating a 22-question elementary algebra concept inventory. A calibrated item pool also will allow for multiple versions of the test to be equated, so instructors or researchers can give different students different test forms but equate the scores, thus improving exam security and the reliability of results. The concept inventory database will be validated with students from the City College of New York system, where the student population is roughly 80% non-white, 60% female, 60% Pell-grant recipients, 50% first-generation college students, and 40% for whom English was not their first language. The instrument will also be tested at six other colleges across the country to ensure generalization to different institutional contexts. The project will also produce a conceptual framework for college students' understanding of elementary algebra.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.