This report shares findings from the 2024-25 evaluation of the STEM Action Center’s Professional Learning (PL) Grant program. Educators and site leaders reported stronger STEM teaching skills, greater confidence, and more opportunities for collaboration as a result of their participation. The evaluation also highlights persistent challenges, including limited time and competing priorities, and offers considerations to strengthen future STEM PL efforts.
This report outlines the evaluation of Utah STEM Action Center's Computing Partnership (CP) grant program in their second and final year of implementation during the 2024-25 academic year. Findings from the evaluation highlighted the expansion of computing programming at participating sites and reported growth among students and educators engaged in grant activities, while also noting the need for continued support in rural areas and strategies to better foster students’ computing identities.
This report provides findings from the Utah Education Policy Center’s 2024-2025 evaluation of STEM Action Center’s AmeriCorps Math Mentors Program for the 2024-2025 school year. The report summarizes results related to program implementation, mentors’ perceptions of training and support, and changes in student attitudes and performance.
This report presents findings from an independent evaluation of Beast Academy Online, a digital mathematics learning platform, conducted by the Utah Education Policy Center (UEPC) in partnership with Art of Problem Solving. The findings indicate that regular use of Beast Academy Online supports mathematics achievement for high-ability elementary students, a group often overlooked in remediation-focused recovery efforts. Based on its correlational design with statistical controls for selection bias, this study provides Promising Evidence under ESSA Tier 3.
This report provides findings from the Utah Education Policy Center’s 2024-2025 evaluation of STEM Action Center’s K-12 Math Personalized Learning Software Grant Program. Using teacher surveys, student surveys, math learning software (MLS) usage data, and statewide administrative data, the evaluation examined five key evaluation questions related to the quality of MLS implementation, teacher and student perceptions of its value, and the relationship between MLS usage and student math attitudes and achievement.
The Youth Teaching Youth (YTY) program at the Natural History Museum of Utah engages middle school students as science educators for elementary students and provides high school participants with paid internship opportunities. This report presents findings from the Utah Education Policy Center’s evaluation of YTY, examining its impact on three key outcomes: middle school students’ end-of-year science test scores, chronic absenteeism rates, and on-time high school graduation rates.
This reports summarizes findings from the UEPC's evaluation of the STEM Action Center's AmeriCorps Math Mentors Program.
This report summarizes findings from UEPC's three-year evaluation of the Pre-Freshman Engingeering Program (PREP) Plus at Salt Lake Community College (SLCC), which was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technical Education (ATE) program. PREP Plus focused on the development and implementation of a competency-based engineering technology certificate program at SLCC for high school students from Jordan School District in Utah.
This report presents findings and considerations from the second year of the UEPC's evaluation of the Institute for Data-Driven Dynamical Design (ID4), funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) program. Led by a team at Colorado School of Mines, ID4 is a virtual institute uniting scholars and students from 12 sites across the country to integrate human and machine intelligence, revolutionize the design cycle, and foster an inclusive scientific community.
Along with our partners as STEM Action Center, UEPC looked at the associations between student attitudes toward math and math learning software use.
This research brief, prepared in partnership with STEM Action Center, looks at associations between math learning software usage and personalized, competency-based instructional strategies.
In partnership with STEM Action Center, UEPC shares best practices for math blended learning environments based on teacher and student survey data.
This report was prepared for the STEM Action Center in support of the K-12 Math Personalized Learning Software Grant Program. The results of this quasi-experimental study suggest that Utah students who, on average, used IXL for 20 minutes or more per week in 2020-2021 performed better on statewide math assessments than students who did not use IXL. This finding is consistent with IXL’s implementation fidelity and usage recommendations which indicate that, for “optimal usage,” students should reach proficiency in at least two skills per week.
In this study, the Utah Education Policy Center presents evidence for a “digital use divide” in Utah wherein some students are using technology in ways that enhance their mathematics learning through student-centered and data-informed teacher support while other students are using technology in ways that lead to student disengagement and that contribute to educator disaffection.
The Utah Education Policy Center worked collaboratively with Utah’s STEM Action Center to ensure that the AmeriCorps Math Mentors Program was designed and implemented in ways that align with evidence-based and practice-informed guidelines for tutoring and mentoring programs.
The Utah Education Policy Center provided an external evaluation of a program that is designed to support the development of early mathematics skills in young children by developing and distributing resource kits to families.
In Utah, does the successful completion of algebra content in Secondary Math I lay the foundation for later coursework and create a gateway to mathematics courses completed prior to postsecondary…
An Evaluation of the Impact of the Computing Partnerships Grants Program prepared by the Utah Education Policy Center on behalf of the Utah STEM Action Center.
An evaluation of teacher knowledge, practices, and outcomes using mathematics personalized learning software.
An evaluation of student attitudes and perceptions of math personalized learning software.
The Center for Science and Math Education (CSME), at the University of Utah (U of U), received a Mathematics and Science Partnership Program (MSP) grant in 2015-2017.
The UEPC served as the external evaluator for the Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair (SLVSEF), now known as the University of Utah Science & Engineering Fair (USEF).
This evaluation of the STEMLink program assesses both implementation and outcomes.
The UEPC served as the external evaluator for the INSPIRE project run by the University of Utah Center for Science and Mathematics Education (CSME), in partnership with the Salt Lake County Metro Jail and the Utah Department of Corrections.
This evaluation of the STEMLink program assesses both implementation and outcomes.
The UEPC has served as the external evaluator for four DoDEA STEM grants awarded to three schools in Davis County, Utah.
As a follow up to our Math 1050: College Algebra study, the UEPC analyzed data from the Utah Data Alliance to compare math outcomes for 593 students who took Math 1050 and Math 1060 (Precalculus) through concurrent enrollment while in high school to math outcomes for 592 students who took Math 1050 and Math 1060 through regular enrollment while in college.