Advanced Education Measurement Study

To better understand the relationship between BRICKS 4 KIDZ programs and growth in maths and science skills, our US colleagues asked Advanced Education Measurement (AEM) to perform the first-ever national study of program effectiveness. AEM administered a pretest / post-test design that measured student ability in targeted maths and science skills for two BRICKS 4 KIDZ programs to 702 students across the US in years K-5. AEM first distrib­uted its full results through a white paper available here

The main finding from AEM’s study was that BRICKS 4 KIDZ students of all ages demonstrated growth in targeted maths and science skills. Participation in BRICKS 4 KIDZ School Incursions and After-School programs was associated with increased scores on test items that measured student understanding of key BRICKS 4 KIDZ curriculum points.

Growth on Targeted Skills

To measure growth, social scientists often employ a pretest / post-test design. Students take a test at the beginning of a course of study, receive instruction, then take the same test after the instruction has completed. Researchers expect that if students have increased their knowledge on targeted material, they will score better on the post-test.

AEM designed a pretest / post-test design for five groups. For BRICKS 4 KIDZ School Incursions, AEM designed a test for kids aged 6, 8, and 10. For BRICKS 4 KIDZ After-School programs, AEM designed a test for students years K-2 and 3-5. If BRICKS 4 KIDZ increased understanding of targeted math and science skills, one would expect to see students score better on the post-test than the pretest.

That is exactly what happened in AEM’s study of BRICKS 4 KIDZ. Figure 1 (above) shows that students in all five groups scored better on the post-test, a result consistent with the hypothesis that our programs increase student maths and science ability. Improvement for students in our After-School programs ranged from a 6.7% increase for Years 3-5 to a 10.7% increase for Years K-2. The improvement for students in our School Incursions is even more pronounced. Workshop students aged 6 improved 11.3% on the post-test, those aged 8 improved 37%, and those aged 10 improved 44%. For the entire study, the average child improved 24.4% on the post-test!

Figure 2 (above) shows that the average student also improved on the post-test. 59.9% of students scored at least one more item correctly on the post-test over the pretest. In other words, 6 out of 10 children improved their maths and science skills over the course of their BRICKS 4 KIDZ participation.

Spots at our BRICKS 4 KIDZ After School programs at Nambour Christian College, Brightwater State School, Currimundi Primary School, Montville State School, Caloundra City Private School, Caloundra State School, Buderim Mountain State School, Chancellor State College and St John’s College are currently open, and going quick. If you’d like to talk with us about bringing BRICKS 4 KIDZ to your school, give us a shout!