COPE's Research and Evaluation expertise has been used by state boards of education, policy makers, and individual school districts. Based on the Center's previous research, COPE is helping educators apply best practices to integrating technology into education.
Center for Online Professional Education
Research & Evaluation
Education research and program evaluation are significant pieces of COPE’s work. Following our belief that research needs to be grounded in the realities of the classroom and school district where it is conducted, COPE researchers are sensitive to the issues that make each classroom, school, and district unique. Our evaluations cover a wide range of projects, from short-term programs to five-year, statewide educational initiatives.
While our use of online technology enables us to work with school districts and state education boards all over the country, our evaluation projects have a significant face-to-face component. Currently, COPE is evaluating projects in Massachusetts, Maine, and Louisiana.
Many of our program evaluations seek to assess the impact of technology use in the classroom. COPE is currently evaluating the Boston Public Schools' SELECT Math project, whose goal is to help teachers understand how to integrate technology tools appropriately into their teaching practice.
Likewise in Louisiana, COPE is conducting research on the Algebra I Online program offered by the state's Center for Educational Technology to see how the mathematics learning of students in the Algebra I online classes compares with students in traditional algebra classes.
Through the Maine Impact Study of Technology in Mathematics (MISTM) project, COPE is measuring the impact of online professional development and a one-to-one laptop initiative on student achievement. COPE is also conducting a broader study to measure the effectiveness of online professional development programs for teachers in an effort to understand how different online models contribute to learning.
Our research and evaluation work seeks to achieve the following:
- Help schools, districts, and state boards of education assess the performance of educational programs, projects and initiatives;
- Offer professional and research-based insight into methods for improvement; and
- Examine the influence of technology and technology-based professional development on student achievement.
For more information about COPE's research and evaluation projects, visit our projects page.
