Incorporating educational content into digital games and using those games as part of the elementary school curriculum to deliver traditional subjects has become a recent trend. Yu and Tsuei have launched a quasi-experimental study in digital game-based learning, examining its effect on the learning progress of elementary school students in Chinese language-arts. The authors recruited 126 4th graders (aged 9–10 years) from six classes in an elementary school in Taipei, Taiwan, with four classes as experimental group, and two classes as control group. Throughout a six-week experimental period, while the control-group classes read e-books on personal computers for 20 minutes each week, two experimental-group classes were assigned to play the game Legendary Beast Rescue I (EG I), and the other two classes, the game Legendary Beast Rescue II (EG II) for the same time span as the students’ learning of Chinese language-arts. The two games differ in their rewards mechanisms,...

In 2003 and 2004, a team of researchers implemented a year-long social and emotional learning (SEL) intervention with 192 children within 22 classrooms within 12 Head Start programs. This intervention, called Head Start REDI, was an integration of PATHS, which is a well-known SEL intervention, and a daily interactive reading program using books aligned with PATHS’ social and emotional themes. Teachers in the intervention group received a four-day training and weekly mentoring. An additional 164 children within 22 classrooms within 13 Head Start programs served as a control group. Karen Bierman and her team followed these children after 8 to 10 years to estimate the long-term effects of the intervention. Among the original 356 children, 281 children (81%) were reassessed in this study. Children who were 4 years old at the time of intervention were in grades 7 and 9 when they were assessed again. The researchers found that children...

Designed by a group of Finnish and American interdisciplinary researchers, the Crafting Engaging Science Environment (CESE) intervention aims to increase both students’ interest and performance in secondary-level science subjects. The intervention, containing 3 lessons each in Chemistry and Physics, constructs its lessons using Project-Based Learning (PBL). By challenging students in the lessons, the intervention seeks to elevate students’ engagement and pursuit of meaningfulness. Lessons center on “real-world phenomena” to enhance students’ ability to plan and investigate by themselves. Schneider et al. conducted research with 61 schools, 119 teachers, and 4,238 students in California and Michigan, looking into the possible effects of CESE. Participating teachers and students were evenly divided into two groups–one followed the instructions of the CESE intervention while the other continued with business as usual. A 2-level Hierarchical Linear Model was used to evaluate the intervention effects between the groups among different races and ethnicity while adding on...

Emily K. Snell and colleagues recently conducted a randomized controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of a texting-based vocabulary program for prekindergarten students within an urban school district. The study consisted of 346 students (173 assigned to the treatment group and 173 assigned to the control group) in 49 classrooms (24 assigned to the treatment group and 25 assigned to the control group) and took place over 7 months, with 5 of those months devoted to the intervention and 1 month at both the beginning and end devoted to testing. Teachers in the treatment group received training and were instructed to send text messages to parents each week with four vocabulary words being targeted for the week, as well as links to child-friendly definitions, images, and ideas for activities. A comparison of post-test and pre-test scores revealed that children in the treatment group demonstrated significantly greater vocabulary learning than those...

In-person and high-dosage tutoring is gaining popularity among practitioners as an evidence-based approach to accelerate learning in the post-pandemic education system. Facing the challenge of insufficient funding and lack of local tutors to provide in-person tutoring, some practitioners regard online tutoring as an alternative outlet. However, there is limited research to establish the effectiveness of online tutoring programs. To investigate this topic of increasing interest, Dr. Kraft and his colleagues conducted a pilot study and found answers align with conventional wisdom. This pilot study recruited 230 volunteer college student tutors from 47 highly selective universities to deliver one-to-one online tutoring using Zoom. All tutors participated in a three-hour training session before the intervention and weekly peer-mentoring sessions during the intervention. The 560 participants were 6th-8th grade students from Chicago. Almost all of them come from low-income households. The study randomly assigned students to treatment condition or control condition within each...

In the aftermath of the one-child policy in China (1979-2016) having been implemented over 30 years, some researchers found that only-children performed better academically. While most of these studies focused on only-children in urban China, Shi and colleagues conducted a study to investigate the sibling effect on rural children’s academic outcomes. Conversely to an urban area, families in rural China tend to have more children than their urban counterparts. Moreover, along with the national one-child policy, the “One-Son-Two-Kids” rule allowed rural couples to have a second child if the first one was a girl, due to cultural preference to have a son in the family. Families with one child only, therefore, were not common in rural areas. The study was conducted in 2018. After a recruiting process, 156 grade 9 only-children from 102 classes were identified. For each only-child, one peer with sibling(s) was randomly selected from the same class....

A recent meta-analysis published in the Review of Educational Research intends to identify and understand the intervention characteristics associated with the largest reading effect sizes. To support students’ reading outcomes, current models of intervention delivery have utilized multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), also referred to as Response to Intervention (RtI). Within current MTSS and RtI frameworks, intervention levels are organized around three tiers. Tier 1 consists of delivering general education classroom instruction. Tier 2 consists of small group or 1:1 tutoring. Tier 3 consists of 1:1 instruction, with higher dosage and personalization. However, despite the promise of early reading interventions, about 18% to 55% of K–3 students with reading disabilities (SWRD) under Tier 2 intervention have continued to struggle in reading. Therefore, it remains critical to better understand how and when to intensify reading interventions. Since linear models in intervention research and meta-analyses have been unable to substantiate the claim...

A study published in Evaluation Review evaluated the effect of a teacher professional development program on student math achievement in two experiments. The evaluation was conducted through repeated randomized control trials on two consecutive cohorts of teachers. Since replication is rare in education, the authors wanted to evaluate the relevance of program implementation on its effectiveness. Two cohorts of 730 teachers and their 13,000 sixth grade students participated in the study in 2008 and 2010. In both cohorts, teachers were randomly assigned to the intervention or to the control group for three years of program implementation. The PD program, named PON M@t.abel+, was promoted by the Italian Ministry of Education to train math teachers in using strategies close to the students’ everyday life and learning by doing. Training was provided to groups of teachers (15-20 each group) by a tutor using both in-person and online sessions. The training covered different...

Markovitz and colleagues recently reported on a replication and expansion of a previous randomized controlled trial focused on volunteer tutoring in reading for at-risk early elementary school students. The study focuses on the effectiveness of the Minnesota Reading Corps and the Wisconsin Reading Corps, which are both programs within AmeriCorps. The initial 2014 study focused solely on Minnesota and was limited in its ability to assess impacts for second and third grade students. The authors suggest the study is useful because aspects of the tutoring programs have changed, they are now evaluating the effects of tutoring in two separate programs, and they are now able to have a longer evaluation of the effects on second and third grade students. The study used a matched-pairs design in which students were matched based upon their baseline fall test scores, and then one student was assigned to the control group while the other...