A Correlational Study of the Impact of Experience in Arizona Schools

McREL recently conducted a study to examine the impact of Discovery Education and school-level academic achievement in the state of Arizona. Using a correlational design, the study explored the relationship between usage of Experience and students’ results on the 2022-23 Arizona state mathematics and ELA assessments for grades 3-8.

In particular, this study intended to find out if schools who use Experience achieve better assessment results than schools that don’t use Experience, as well as the ideal threshold of Experience usage to impact academic performance. 

The findings indicate that Arizona schools using Experience saw a meaningful increase in test scores and overall academic achievements. Importantly, large effects were seen when 20+ teachers and 20+ students interacted with Experience for two consecutive years.