Making the Right Moves in

Chess

by Rhonda Barton

About four dozen eager faces look up at Steve Rosenfeld as he reviews the strategies of "leapfrog" and "ham sandwich" checkmate. Although they're listening respectfully, you can tell the Jason Lee Elementary School students are just itching to take their places and start maneuvering their rooks, knights, and pawns over the chessboards that cover the long auditorium tables.

Welcome to Chess for Success—an after-school program at 42 Title I elementary and middle schools in the Portland district. At each school, chess clubs—led by a teacher/coach with support from Chess for Success—meet twice a week for a lesson, games, and practice tournaments.

The program's 12 years of experience have shown Director Julie Young that learning to play chess pays off in many ways for these youngsters, especially in better math and reading skills and in higher self-esteem. But, there's little hard data to back up the anecdotal evidence. "We wanted to have a study that really showed the impact," says Young. "And if the study shows that we're not doing what we think we are, we need to know that, too."

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has contracted with the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory to do a two-year quasi-experimental study of Chess for Success's impact. Oregon Congressman David Wu was successful in getting an earmark in the 2004 appropriations bill that provided $150,000 for the study.

According to NWREL's Chari Smith, evaluation specialists will match 502 youngsters in the chess program with an equal number of control students who don't participate. The two groups will be compared on the basis of Portland Achievement Levels Tests (PALT) in reading and mathematics and on scales measuring behavior and self-esteem. Evaluators will collect data on attendance at chess classes and on the "intensity" of the engagement in class activities.

Smith is also leading a second study for a different chess program that's based in Seattle. America's Foundation for Chess: First Move™ Program integrates chess into the second- and third-grade curriculum. It teaches teachers how to use chess as an instructional tool in their classrooms through modeling, teacher workshops, and mentoring for two years. NWREL will conduct a one-year evaluation that includes classroom observations; workshop and end-of-year surveys; and interviews with teachers and program staff. NWREL staff will design an experimental study that may be implemented next year.

Heather Ramsey, local director of America's Foundation for Chess, points out that there are studies that measure the value of chess but they don't speak to her program's specific approach. "Our curriculum is quite different," she says, "and when you go into districts, administrators need to see proof that our program affects test scores."

Both Ramsey and Young believe the research will help them validate their results and expand their services to a wider network of schools. "I love the idea that you can take something so inexpensive—that's such a brain game—and help kids raise their reading and math scores," says Young, proudly pointing out that almost a third of her program participants are girls. "The kids are attracted immediately because it's a game. When they start doing better in chess, they do better in school, and they realize it's because of the way they're learning to think."

For more information on both chess programs, see www.chessforsuccess.org and www.af4c.org.