DOI: 10.3886/icpsr37625
title: Digital Scaffolding for English Language Arts, United States, 2016-2017
title: Archival Version

description: The Digital Scaffolding for English Language Arts project examines the effect of Visual Syntactic Text Formatting (VSTF) on reading and writing outcomes of 7th and 8th-grade students. VSTF is a technology which reformats text to facilitate reading comprehension. The study used a randomized control trial and was set in an urban school district. The project considers both teachers and students in its implementation of VSTF within the classroom. Variables include demographics, classroom observations, survey responses, annual state assessment results and an end of the year on demand writing task.
description: The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of Visual Syntactic Text Formatting (VSTF) on the reading and writing outcomes of 7th and 8th-grade students.
description: The study uses student demographic and achievement data. Demographic data included the student's grade, gender, ethnicity, whether the student qualified for free/reduced lunch, whether the student was an English language learner, and whether the student was identified for GATE or special education. Achievement data included the scaled overall English Language Arts (ELA) score for the prior year's state assessment as well as the assessment given in the spring of the intervention year. The ELA score is a continuous scaled score from approximately 2258 to 2769 in Grades 7-8 in 2017, with a mean of 2542.4 in Grade 7 and 2558.7 in Grade 8 (California Department of Education, n.d.). These data also included the state assessment's ELA subscales for reading, writing, listening, and research and inquiry, which were scored 1 (below standards), 2 (near standards), or 3 (above standards). Students were surveyed about their perceptions of reading digitally and with the VSTF format. Teachers were surveyed about their use of VSTF, their knowledge about VSTF, their self-efficacy in teaching English Language Arts and in using technology, and their collaboration with other teachers during the study. They also provided weekly estimates of time using the formatted text. Additional measures included classroom observations and an end-of-the-year writing sample.
description: The student dataset includes course grades, performance in the Smarter Better Assessment (SBA) English Language Arts test, and an analysis of an end of the year essay. The analysis of the essay includes 108 indices. These indices fall into the categories of Readability, Word Information, Syntactic Pattern Density, Syntactic Complexity, Situation Model, Connectives, Lexical Diversity, Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), Referential Cohesion, Test Easability Principal Component Scores, and Descriptive as produced by the Coh-Metrix tool. The time spent using formatted text was also recorded. The teacher dataset includes the differences in SBA performance between control and treatment classes, weekly reflections and self-reports, the time spent using formatted text, the type of materials being used in class, and proportions of observations from the classes. The observations use a modification of the Pathway Observation Measure and as such consider the materials used, the activity being performed, the responses of the students and teachers, as well as the overarching focus.
description: The sample consists of 7th and 8th-grade students and their English Language Arts teachers from a participating urban school district. Classes were randomly assigned to the treatment (VSTF texts) or the control (traditional block-formatted texts) condition. Schools were randomly assigned to different digital devices (iPad and Chromebook). One class was assigned to be a control class in response to a teacher's request.
description: Datasets: DS0: Study-Level Files DS1: Student Data DS2: Teacher Data
description: 7th and 8th-grade students taking an English Language Arts class at one urban school district in the United States during the 2016-2017 School Year, as well as their teachers.
description: coded on-site observation; web-based surveyFor additional information on the Digital Scaffolding for English Language Arts study, please visit the Digital Scaffolding for English Language Arts website.