Short video clips that reinforce key concepts are effective in increasing student achievement, according to a second research project. An earlier study found that video can improve learning in science and social studies. Now, brand-new research shows judiciously selected video clips also can produce statistically significant gains in algebra and geometry scores.

The new study, conducted by independent research firm Cometrika, headed by Franklin J. Boster, a distinguished-faculty-award winner at Michigan State University, was released June 21 during the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in New Orleans.

Approximately 2,500 sixth and eighth grade students from four Los Angeles area middle schools participated in the study. Each student was given a pre-test to assess comprehension of specific California state education standards for math, and at the end of the quarter, post-test assessments were given to gauge improvement. Throughout the quarter, teachers assigned to experimental-group classes incorporated approximately 20 standards-based, core-concept video clips into their daily lessons, while teachers in control group classrooms continued with their traditional lessons.

Boster and his team found that sixth-grade students whose teachers showed them video clips during instruction improved an average of five percentage points more than students in the control group during post-testing. Eighth-grade students in Los Angeles improved an average of three percentage points more than students in the control group.

The clips came from the unitedstreaming video-on-demand (VOD) service provided by United Learning, a division of Discovery Education, whose parent company produces the Discovery Channel.

These latest results come as educators are looking for ways to help students meet the rigorous testing requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). To help more schools experience the same kinds of gains, Discovery Education has announced it will offer its unitedstreaming service at no cost to one school in every non-subscribing public school district in the United States during the 2004-2005 school year. School districts already subscribing to the service are not eligible for the introductory program.

From July 1, 2004, through June 30, 2005, the company's new "VOD Pass" program offers free access for one school building in every new district. According to the company, the service provides access to more than 2,200 full-length videos and 22,000 video clips correlated to individual state education standards.

Educators in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) had an inkling of what the study's outcome might be even before the results were official. Jill Longman, a sixth-grade teacher at LAUSD's Olive Vista Middle School in Sylmar, Calif., said she wasn't surprised by the latest study results. She knew the videos were working, she said, by the way her students had responded to them.