Integrating Promethean's ActivClassroom--a suite of educational technologies that includes an interactive whiteboard, teaching software, and student response systems--into instruction can raise student achievement by an average of 17 percentile points, according to new research that also confirms the experience, comfort, and skill level of teachers in using the technology has a huge impact on how effective they'll be.

The study determined that student achievement can really soar if a teacher has 10 or more years of teaching experience, has been using the technology for two or more years, has high confidence in his or her ability to use the ActivClassroom suite, and uses it 75 to 80 percent of the time in the classroom.

During the 2008-09 school year, teachers and students took part in independent studies to find out whether using Promethean ActivClassroom can improve student achievement. The study included 1,716 students whose teachers used ActivClassroom to augment their instructional practices, as well as 1,622 students whose teachers--the same teachers as in the experimental group--used other strategies and materials to facilitate instruction. 

The report, "Evaluation Study of the Effects of Promethean ActivClassroom on Student Achievement," authored by noted education researchers Robert Marzano and Mark Haystead, was released last month. 

The study examined whether ActivClassroom had an impact at different grade levels and across different academic content areas. It also took into account a teacher's length of teaching experience, how long the teacher had been using the whiteboard suite in his or her instruction, the percentage of instructional time that ActivClassroom was used in the classroom, and teachers' perceived confidence in their use of the technology.

"I've spent my career looking at general instruction, and I think we know a lot about that, and adding this [kind of technology] changes the paradigm," Marzano said. "Five years from now, the vast majority of classrooms in this country are going to have this technology, so we better figure out the best way to use it--because it's no small capital investment."

The average student in the groups using the whiteboards scored higher than 67 percent of students in groups that did not use the whiteboards.

The study saw large increases in student achievement with ActivClassroom use in elementary and high school, with achievement gains of 23 percentile points and 21 percentile points, respectively. Middle school achievement gains increased 6 percentile points as a result of the technology.

The researchers also studied achievement at individual grade levels. The seventh graders exhibited no gains in achievement, but Marzano said those results were likely a function of sampling, especially because the surrounding grades all exhibited gains: sixth graders showed high achievement increases, eighth graders showed some increased achievement, and ninth graders exhibited high gains as well. That seventh-grade sampling influenced the overall middle school figure, accounting for the low, but still positive, increase in achievement, he said.