Minneapolis & New York, November 13, 2019 -- Macmillan Learning, a privately-held, family-owned education publishing company, announced today during the American Evaluation Association (AEA) Annual Conference that student final exam scores were more than half-letter grade higher when instructors assigned pre-class activities in Achieve, the company’s new digital learning platform. The company partnered with instructors at 38 two- and four-year institutions to research the efficacy of Achieve, evaluating 2,251 students during the spring 2019 semester. The results revealed today represent one finding from a multi-year efficacy study; other efficacy results are expected to be published later this year. The Achieve platform launches in January 2020 and will be widely available in Fall. “Macmillan Learning is deeply committed to using evidence-based research to build products that help more students to succeed. To best accomplish this, the company took the unusual step of embedding efficacy research for Achieve into the process of designing, developing and improving the new platform,” said Adam Black, PhD, Macmillan Learning’s Chief Learning Officer. Key Findings Use of pre-class activities in Achieve positively influenced summative assessment scores in Achieve and also final exam scores—even when controlling for students’ prior academic performance, baseline level of motivation to succeed in the course, and instructor characteristics. Among the findings: Students who completed  pre-class activities earned, on average, 8.7 percentage points higher on assessments. There were statistically significant differences (p<0.001) in the average assessment scores for students using pre-class assignments in Achieve compared to those who did not.  Students who completed pre-class activities had final exam scores that were 6.8 percentage points higher than students who didn’t. These values were also statistically significant (p<0.001) The more pre-class activities that a student engaged in, the higher their assessment scores and final exam scores were. These values were also statistically significant (correlation = 0.71, p<0.001) The study found that instructors also had strong perceptions of how pre-class activities in Achieve supported their students. They reported that pre-class activities helped their students to stay on track with assigned reading, understand the concepts that would be covered in class, and gain a basic understanding of concepts. Students reported high perceptions of pre-class activities in Achieve as well.  Like their instructors, students agreed that the pre-class work helped them keep up with their reading, come to class prepared to participate, and support their comprehension.   “We’re particularly excited to provide instructors with deeper insights into how particular student subgroups benefit from using it – for example, those less motivated or academically prepared to succeed. These kinds of insights are only possible because of our partnerships with instructors and students and the rigorous research practices we employ, which include two levels of Institutional Review Board approval for every study of Achieve,” said Kara McWilliams PhD., Macmillan Learning’s VP of Impact Research and the study’s Primary Investigator.  About The Research Because the study was conducted with students, Macmillan Learning's processes, data handling, and researcher credentials were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Boards (IRB) at each institution and a third party. IRB review ensures that the study is rigorous and ethical. Forty instructors elected to participate in the study and their students were offered the opportunity to opt-in, and 74% of students chose to participate.  Groups were compared on three dependent variables: scores on assessments in Achieve, scores on final exams given in the course where Achieve was used, and student’s likelihood to recommend a course using Achieve to a friend. The effect of using pre-class activities in Achieve on the dependent variables was also evaluated. Analyses indicated that students’ high school grade point average and that their baseline levels of motivation were related to the dependent variables, so they were controlled for as covariates.  And, students were grouped within instructors so hierarchical linear regression was used to investigate the within and between group differences, where required.  This research has been reviewed by Macmillan Learning’s Impact Research Advisory Council (IRAC), which is comprised of experts in educational technology, methodology, and psychometrics.  “Having had the privilege of participating in Macmillan’s peer review process for The Flipped Effect, I have had a chance to see first-hand how seriously they are taking this critical part of their process. This company is collaborating with serious academics to make sure that the claims they make about their product are true. Their commitment is a model for the sector," said Michael Feldstein, IRAC member and Executive Director, Empirical Educator Project. The research presented today is part of a larger body of research conducted by Macmillan Learning’s Learning Science team that began in 2017 and helped guide development of the Achieve platform.  The team has been studying its efficacy overall, and among subgroups of students to evaluate whether the tool supports all students - like those more and less academically prepared to succeed, more and less motivated to succeed, first generation students, and those with competing demands like jobs and families, among other important cohorts.  Macmillan Learning also presented during the conference “The formative evaluation of Achieve: a novel approach to rapid-cycle evaluation of digital learning tools early in development.” They shared an entirely new research process to test and improve learning products outside of live courses during early development. These methods can be used by other organizations to improve products, to begin to understand chosen implementation patterns, and to glean exploratory evidence of learner effectiveness. About Achieve Achieve is an evolutionary digital learning platform that includes learning materials with a comprehensive set of interconnected teaching and assessment tools. It offers the best features of each of Macmillan Learning’s digital solutions in one platform that is intuitive to use, accessible for students of all abilities, and is flexible for students and instructors. Achieve was developed in partnership with students and instructors with the goal of supporting students of all levels motivation and preparedness and helping to engage students in and out of class so that they have better outcomes. To that end, instructors facilitate can learn in the way that best suits their class, whether it’s traditional, online, blended, or fully “flipped” classrooms.   About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes. Our engaging content is developed in partnership with the world's best researchers, educators, administrators, and developers. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or see us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or join our Macmillan Community. ... View more

New York, January 13, 2020 -- Macmillan Learning, a privately-held, family-owned education publishing company, published research today that demonstrated a positive relationship between use of Achieve , the company’s new digital learning platform, and final exam scores. Research from the ACT , College Board and others have found that a student’s performance on college entrance exams and highschool GPA can predict their future success in two- and four-year institutions. Using these predictors of post-secondary success, the findings from this efficacy study suggest that use of Achieve can help bridge the performance gap often seen among students entering college. That is, the more that less academically prepared students use Achieve, the closer they can come to meeting the performance of their more academically prepared peers. Less academically prepared students (as determined by ACT or SAT scores and high school grade point average) who engaged in at least 80% of assigned activities in Achieve elevated their final exam grade nearly a full letter grade and closed the gap in their average performance and the performance of their more academically prepared peers by about half. The findings build on recently announced data presented at the Academic Evaluation Association (AEA) annual meeting in November demonstrating that students performed better on final exams when they used Achieve’s pre-class activities, regardless of their motivation or academic preparedness levels coming into the class.  “The benefits of a post-secondary certificate or degree are well known, yet we still see students entering college less prepared to succeed. The instructors we partner with are always exploring new ways to fill the skills gaps of less academically prepared students while keeping their more prepared students challenged. While there’s no silver bullet, we believe in providing instructors with insights into the differential efficacy of our solutions, and are pleased that we can offer them evidence that Achieve will support their efforts to help all their students succeed,” said Kara McWilliams PhD., VP of Impact Research, Macmillan Learning, and the study’s Primary Investigator. The company partnered with instructors at 38 two- and four-year institutions to research the efficacy of Achieve, evaluating 2,251 students during the spring 2019 semester. The results revealed today represent one finding from a multi-year efficacy study, with other results being published following data collection and peer-review. Macmillan Learning’s Achieve platform launches this month and will be widely available in Fall. Key Findings Use of Achieve is positively related to student’s final exam scores , regardless of their level of academic preparedness coming into college p<.0001. For every ten percent increase in a student’s engagement in assigned activities, they can expect a 5.7 percentage point increase on their final exam score The magnitude of Achieve’s influence on final exam scores was greater for students less academically prepared to succeed r(657) = .58, p<.0001 but was significantly positive for their more academically prepared peers also r(961) = .42, p<.0001. Among students taking STEM courses, the magnitude of the relationship was greatest among less academically prepared females (r(205) = .57, p<.0001, but was also significant among their male counterparts r(237) = .41, p<.0001 and more academically prepared female r(416) = .33, p<.0001 and male r(281) = .39, p<.0001 STEM students. Students who complete at least 80% of their assigned activities in Achieve, earn nearly a letter grade higher , on average, than students who complete less than 80%. The gap in performance on final exams closes by about half between less and more academically prepared students, when students less prepared to succeed complete at least 80% of their assigned activities in Achieve.  About The Research This study investigated the differential efficacy of Achieve among students less and more academically prepared to succeed. Macmillan Learning collected students’ self-reported highschool GPA as well as ACT or SAT scores, if one or both had been taken. Using those scores, students were then categorized as less or more academically prepared, and outcomes were evaluated among each group. Achieve efficacy research began while the tool was in beta testing so that feedback from instructors and students as well as student outcomes could be used to evolve the product, and to provide instructors with a transparent body of timely evidence of effectiveness. This study complied with the American Psychological Association ethical standards for research.  It was approved by a third-party Institutional Review Board (IRB) and then approved at individual institutions where required.  IRB approval enabled researchers to compare course results with detailed information about each student, including their academic background. It also enabled the collection of student records including final exam scores and course grades. Forty instructors elected to participate in the study and their students were offered the opportunity to opt-in, and 74% of students chose to participate.  This research has been reviewed by Macmillan Learning’s Impact Research Advisory Council (IRAC), which is comprised of experts in educational technology, methodology, and psychometrics.  The findings released today are part of a larger body of research conducted by Macmillan Learning’s Learning Science team that began in 2017 and helped guide development of the Achieve platform.  The team has been studying its efficacy overall, and among subgroups of students to evaluate whether the tool supports all students - like those more and less academically prepared to succeed, more and less motivated to succeed, first generation students, and those with competing demands like jobs and families, among other important cohorts.  Academic preparedness was measured by both college readiness status as determined by performance on the ACT or SAT, and high school grade point average. Find the full “Achieving Student Success” research report here. About Achieve Achieve is an evolutionary digital learning platform that includes learning materials with a comprehensive set of interconnected teaching and assessment tools. It offers the best features of each of Macmillan Learning’s digital solutions in one platform that is intuitive to use and is flexible for students and instructors. Achieve was developed using published foundations of learning science and in partnership with students and instructors with the goal of supporting students of all levels motivation and preparedness and helping to engage students in and out of class so that they have better outcomes. To that end, instructors facilitate can learn in the way that best suits their class, whether it’s traditional, online, blended, or fully “flipped” classrooms.  About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes. Our engaging content is developed in partnership with the world's best researchers, educators, administrators, and developers. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or see us on Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn or join our Macmillan Community . ... View more

New York, May 5, 2020 --  Macmillan Learning announced that digital learning platform Achieve is the first product exclusively designed for higher education to earn the “Research-Based Design” product certification by Digital Promise. Achieve includes learning materials with a comprehensive set of interconnected teaching and assessment tools, and it will be available in the U.S. and Canada in Fall 2020. In an effort to provide educators with evidence they can use to make informed decisions and support the success of students, Digital Promise established a rigorous program to evaluate edtech tools and determine, based on expert review, whether the tool can be certified as designed and developed based on educational research. The product certifications help ensure instructors and institutions that the products they select were designed using research-based learning science principles and developed using best practices before using them with their students. “Understanding how people learn most effectively and allowing those principles to form the foundation of edtech development is key to student success. I’m proud that Achieve is the first higher education learning tool to earn this rigorous certification, and that we can provide another strong piece of evidence that educators can use when making decisions about what tools will benefit the students in their class,” said Susan Winslow, General Manager, Macmillan Learning.  “Digital Promise’s product certifications are designed to help schools and families in choosing research-based products, while recognizing product developers who incorporate valid research into their designs,” said Vic Vuchic, Chief Innovation Officer of Digital Promise. “We hope product certifications send a strong signal for both product developers and consumers in the marketplace.”   Achieve was developed using published foundations of learning science and in partnership with students and instructors to support students of all levels of motivation and preparedness. It offers the best features of each of Macmillan Learning’s digital solutions in one platform, and engages students both in and out of class so that they have better outcomes. Achieve enables the facilitation of learning in the way that most enhances an instructor’s class, whether it’s traditional, online, blended, or a fully “flipped” classroom. About Macmillan Learning Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family-owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or join our Macmillan Community. ... View more