The Effect of a Blended Learning Instructional Model on the Mathematics Performance of Sixth and Seventh Grade Students in a Small Northeastern Urban School District

Closing the achievement gap has been the focus of education reform for decades. Federal educational reform policies No Child Left Behind (2002) and Race to The Top (2009) renewed attention on the achievement gap and the quest to find ways to improve student outcomes. The latter addressed the needs of 21st century learners, and as such, the need to look towards new, innovative ways of addressing students\u27 individual needs. In 2010, in its National Educational Technology Plan, Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology, the USDOE stressed that there needed to be a shift in how students were educated, including shifting to technology-based learning. According to the USDOE, using technology to support instruction will be pivotal to improvements in student learning and the generation of data that would be the cornerstone of continuous improvements in schools (USDOE, 2010). This study examined a blended learning model of instruction in an elementary school setting and its effect on student performance in mathematics. To determine if participation in blended learning instructional model affected student achievement, PARCC Spring 2018 mathematics scores were collected and analyzed for students in grades 6 and 7 in a small northeastern urban school district. The outcomes revealed mixed results; students in grade 6 had statistically higher scores than their counterparts who received instruction in a traditional instructional setting. This was not the case for students in grade 7; although their scores were numerically higher, the difference was not statistically significant. Key words: Blended Learning, traditional instruction, student performance, mathematics, personalization, technology-based learnin