Overview1
Program Description2
The I CAN Learn®Education System is an interactive, self-paced, mastery-based software system that includes the I CAN Learn® Fundamentals of Math (5th–6th grade math) curriculum, the I CAN Learn® Pre-Algebra curriculum, and the I CAN Learn® Algebra curriculum. College algebra credit is also available to students in participating schools through the 121 lesson CLEP program, an open enrollment dual-credit program for middle and high school students. Studies included in this WWC review assess the effectiveness of the Pre-Algebra and Algebra components of the I CAN Learn® Education System.
Research
One study of I CAN Learn®Pre-Algebra and Algebra meets What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evidence standards and four studies meet WWC evidence standards with reservations. The five studies included 16,519 eighth-grade students from middle schools in California, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana.3
Based on these five studies, the WWC considers the extent of evidence for I CAN Learn®Pre-Algebra and Algebra to be medium to large for math achievement.
Effectiveness
I CAN Learn®Pre-Algebra and Algebra was found to have positive effects on math achievement.
| Math achievement | |
|---|---|
| Rating of effectiveness | Positive effects |
| Improvement index4 | Average: +5 percentile points Range: –7 to +16 percentile points |
1 This report has been updated to include reviews of 15 studies that have been released since 2005. Of the additional studies, eight were not within the
scope of the protocol, and seven were within the scope of the protocol but did not meet evidence standards. A complete list and disposition of all studies
reviewed is provided in the references. Additionally, one study that met standards with reservations in the previous version (Kirby, 2005c) will now be
eligible for review as part of the WWC high school math topic area. (The protocol for the middle school math topic area was revised to narrow the scope
from examining any students in grades 6 to 9 to examining only those students who are attending middle schools or junior high schools. Studies examining
students in grade 9 who are attending high school are included in the high school math topic area).
2 The descriptive information for this program was obtained from a publicly-available source: the program’s website (http://www.icanlearn.com/default.asp,
downloaded August 2008). The WWC requests developers to review the program description sections for accuracy from their perspective. Further verification
of the accuracy of the descriptive information for this program is beyond the scope of this review.
3 The evidence presented in this report is based on available research. Findings and conclusions may change as new research becomes available.
4 These numbers show the average and range of student-level improvement indices for all findings across the studies.
