GBH Education, working with an external researcher, conducted a randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of the PBS LearningMedia U.S. History Collection on students’ content knowledge and historical thinking skills.
We conduct research to improve our work, evaluate our impact, and stay current on what teachers, families, and kids need from educational media.
Our Impact
- A randomized controlled trial of the U.S. History Collection on PBS LearningMedia with over 1,200 students across 17 states found that students in classes that used PBS LearningMedia materials from the U.S. History Collection had significantly larger gains in content and historical thinking skills compared to students in similar classes who did not use the resources.
- A study by the Center for Research and Reform in Education (CRRE) at Johns Hopkins University found that students who were exposed to the NOVA: Making North America and AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: The Great War collections on PBS LearningMedia made statistically significant gains in content knowledge after exposure to PBS LearningMedia materials.
- The Solving Community Problems with Engineering curriculum on PBS LearningMedia was piloted with two teachers and 145 seventh grade students from eight science classes in a rural public school in May 2022. After completing the SCoPE curriculum, students had a broader understanding of the types of activities engineers engage in and the types of problems they solve. For example, after completing the SCoPE curriculum, 92% of students said they thought engineers protected the environment compared to 60% on the pre-survey. Finally, while boys’ interest in science and engineering did not significantly change, girls’ interest in engineering and confidence in becoming an engineer significantly increased, almost closing the gender gap between boys and girls.
Early Childhood and Community Engagement Impact
In partnership with five public media stations across the United States, we conducted research and developed a suite of MOLLY OF DENALI Family Games, which were used by 244 families in rural areas from those regions. The Center for Program Evaluation at the University of Nevada, Reno conducted an evaluation of the initiative. They found that children’s mean knowledge of informational text and targeted social studies concepts increased significantly from pre-test to post-test and 93% of parents reported that they would recommend the games to friends. We are refining the games based on this research and an improved suite of eight games will be distributed through 50 public media stations across the country, reaching 5,000 families.
- A 2022 summative evaluation conducted by Concord Evaluation Group found that the Design Squad Maker Toolkit was effective in familiarizing parents with the design process and helping them feel more confident supporting their children with engineering design projects. These effects were especially found among parents with less than a college degree. The Toolkit also helped kids become more familiar with the design process and increased their interest.
Teacher K-12 Digital Media Use Before & After The COVID-19 Transition To Remote Learning
Using online surveys of 1,914 educators before and after COVID-19 prompted a shift to widespread remote learning in the U.S., GBH Education found key differences in access and use of digital learning technologies.
A Teacher's Guide to Educational Media for Diversity and Equity
This Guide introduces relevant, research-based, actionable principles to support science educators in selecting and contextualizing media to promote culturally and linguistically responsive teaching and learning in their classrooms.