In examining the interconnections within and between the
areas of the theory of change, connections to student achievement
were also taken into consideration. Although typical student
achievement measurement tools do not align with the rigor that is
intentionally sought in the measurement of student outcomes in
the STEM Common Measurement system (Katsinas & Bush, 2006),
connections to student achievement were included for two
reasons. First, district, schools, and teachers are still currently
working in an education system that relies on student achievement
metrics for accountability policies making these metrics relevant
to these educators’ professional practice. Second, a large portion of
the education research literature relies on student achievement
metrics in examining relationship between variables and school or
intervention effectiveness. Until the student achievement tests are
adapted to come into better alignment with the new national
standards for college and career readiness in mathematics and
science, the education community has few other options besides
these measures that are used on a broad scale across the K-12
education sector; therefore, connections to student achievement
are included in this analysis.