NEW YORK — A new study has found that a school-based assessment system is more effective than the traditional classroom approach, which relies on teacher evaluations and teacher reports.
The findings, published in the journal Educational Psychology in August, also suggest that a single assessment system could be more effective for schools that are experiencing challenges in maintaining a teacher-student relationship.
Kindergarden Online Learning, which offers online learning to preschoolers, grades 9-12, has become popular in recent years, but the majority of schools don’t use it.
“I’m really excited to see where this goes,” said Dr. Rebecca Haney, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania’s Child Study Center who studies the effects of online learning.
“I think there’s a lot of opportunities for using a hybrid model that’s actually designed to be both effective and scalable.”
The new study found that preschool teachers using KindergardenOnlineLIVE, a program created by the nonprofit organization KIPP, had a more positive assessment of their students than the same teachers using traditional methods.
The students also scored higher on tests of academic achievement, emotional intelligence, and social-emotional awareness.
The teachers who used a more traditional assessment system, however, scored lower on these tests, according to the study.
The new results also showed that students who attended Kindergarten Online Learning at home scored lower than those who attended in-person classes.
That means that the online learning can be a more effective tool for learning, especially for students who struggle to read or write.
“The biggest benefit for a school system that has a lot more flexibility in its evaluation is that you can have a more comprehensive assessment,” Haney said.
“In a traditional classroom, the teacher is not necessarily in charge of the assessment.
They can make mistakes, and that can have an impact on the students’ achievement.”
But the authors of the study say that the assessment system doesn’t have to be structured in a particular way.
“[The assessments] don’t have a rigid formula, they don’t necessarily have to include everything the students need,” said John McKeown, a research scientist at the Center for Education Research and Education at Rutgers University.
“We have to find the right mix of the things that are important and the things we need in the assessment.”
According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, children with autism spectrum disorders tend to have difficulties reading and writing.
The study looked at kindergarteners who were in KindergarterOnlineLIFE classrooms, as well as those who were not enrolled in the program.
In general, the KindergadenOnlineLIVES teachers had higher test scores on the Kindergrammars test, which is designed to measure academic achievement and social skills.
But the results of the tests were inconsistent.
One teacher who had received an overall positive assessment was found to have significantly higher test score among kindergarteners.
Another teacher had a score of 2.2 out of 5 on the test, while the second had a 4.2.
Haney said she was excited to find that teachers who had been using traditional assessments had a higher testscore among students who were at a disadvantage in school.
Another teacher who was a single-service teacher had lower scores on her kindergarten assessments than her other teachers.
Haney noted that the findings could be good news for parents.
“The teachers were doing a better job of supporting the kids in their learning, but I think parents want to know that their kids are getting quality education,” she said.
“So I think it’s really good news to parents.”
The study also found that the use of the KinderGarten OnlineLIVE system helped reduce behavioral problems in the children.
According to Haney and her colleagues, the system may have been the most effective approach to reduce problems with behavioral problems among kindergarten students.
“I think parents can really use this to their advantage,” Hane said.
While the new findings are promising, Haney cautions against trying to emulate the results.
“You can’t replicate these findings, and we’re not trying to replicate the results,” she added.
“These are results that we’ve gathered in our lab, but we haven’t replicated them.
I think you’re better off focusing on how to create a better quality of education, which means being flexible and using technology to help you do that.”
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