Reading comprehension is an essential skill; hence, it is crucial to identify effective strategies to support children in developing this skill, particularly when they face challenges in reading. In a recent Bayesian network meta-analysis (BNMA), researchers examined the effectiveness of various combinations of text comprehension strategies in interventions for students with reading difficulties across grades 3 to 12. The meta-analysis included 52 studies and focused on commonly used strategies including main idea, text structure, retell, self-monitoring, graphic organizers, inference, and prediction. Among the 35 possible combinations of strategies examined, the meta-analysis found the main idea-text structure-retell combination to be the most effective in improving reading comprehension (Standard Mean Difference = 1.72). Close behind was the main idea-text structure-self monitoring-graphic organizers combination (SMD = 1.13), followed by the main idea strategy alone (SMD = 1.07). These combinations and individual strategies showed a significant positive impact on enhancing reading comprehension skills. On...

A recent randomized study evaluated the effectiveness of a summer program to recover credits in high school, comparing two delivery modes: online vs. in-class directed by a teacher. Students who failed the Algebra I or English 9 courses from schools in Los Angeles were randomly assigned to receive the credit recovery program online or in-class. For the Algebra course, 305 students were assigned to the online delivery and 308 to the in-class program. For the English course, 564 students were assigned to the online delivery and 560 to the in-class program. The researchers used three measures of impact: credit recovery rates at the end of the program; district PSAT math and reading tests; and a researcher-made end-of-course test to evaluate student outcomes. The results of the latter may be overestimated due to the type of measure used and are not reported in this summary. For the Algebra course, results showed...

According to international and national assessments, US secondary school students struggle with math. Together with policymakers, specialists, and a team from the University of San Diego California, the San Diego Unified School District planned a four-year intervention based on the Changing the Odds (CTO) program. Aimed to improve students’ math performance, this teacher-centered program provided help in identifying students’ math learning needs and in designing interventions addressing these needs. In 2015, four low-performing middle schools of the San Diego Unified School District were appointed to implement the CTO program for four years, while four schools were matched for comparison on achievement and demographics. The four-year program provided materials for teaching and professional development; support for co-teaching, co-planning lessons, and assessing tests; opportunities for collaboration between schools; and a yearly Summer School. A recent NBER working paper evaluated the impact of Changing the Odds through a difference-in-difference approach. Because the testing...

Media multitasking is an increasingly common behavior where individuals use multiple forms of media simultaneously (e.g., listening to music while chatting through social media). Heavy media multitaskers may perform poorly in some cognitive control abilities, including inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. The “scatter attention hypothesis” suggests that heavy media multitaskers are more likely to be distracted by irrelevant information, leading to poorer performance on cognitive tasks. To investigate the association between media multitasking frequency with cognitive control, Kong and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis comparing cognitive control abilities between heavy (HMM) and light media multitaskers (LMM), while also examining potential moderators including age using two groups: adolescents (12-18 years old) and young adults (18-35 years old). The sample included 118 effect sizes from 43 studies that compared at least one component of executive function between HMM and LMM using the media multitask index (MMI) or a modified version of...

Recently, the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) produced a systematic review on the effectiveness of Reading Apprenticeship, a professional development program that can be delivered online or in person. The program leads teachers to help their students develop reading comprehension and acquire interest, engagement, and confidence in reading. It also aims to enhance social-emotional learning, as well as academic achievement in math, reading, science and social sciences for middle and high school students. This review focuses on the effects on academic achievement. Five out of the nine studies located from a literature search met the WWC inclusion criteria. The selected studies were randomized control trials involving a total of 22,176 American students in grade 7-9. The most assessed outcomes were reading comprehension (n=5) and literacy achievement (n=3); mathematics achievement was assessed by two studies; science, general academic achievement, social sciences, and vocabulary were assessed only by one study, and life sciences...

How can the United States bridge math proficiency gaps? Ensuring equitable opportunities for students to receive adequate preparation and access to advanced math is critical to the equation. This is due to the clear benefits of learning advanced math in high school, such as increased options for majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, higher rates of college acceptance, and greater opportunities for college scholarships and financial aid. Despite these benefits, a significant portion of high school students are either not being offered the opportunity to take or are opting out of advanced math courses. A recent report from RAND identified gaps in students’ opportunities to access advanced math and provided recommended support to address these gaps. This report utilized data from nationally representative surveys of teachers and school leaders in kindergarten through grade 12 during the 2021-2022 school year. The findings indicated that fewer advanced math courses were offered...

Recently, Mathematica reported the results of  an evaluation study  of the Math Corps’ Tutoring Program, an evidence-based math tutoring program delivering personalized support to all students, in particular students who are Black, Latino, and/or in poverty. During two school years (i.e., 2020–2021 and 2021–2022), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded the rapid-cycle evaluations of a cohort of 10 tutoring providers seeking to understand how different tutoring models lead to improved academic outcomes. Mathematica worked with each one of the tutoring providers to identify the most rigorous and feasible study design within a one-to-three-month planning period. Math Corps’ quasi-experimental study used a mixed methods analysis. Their evaluation matched AmeriCorps tutors with schools to support approximately 24 students in grades 4 through 8, in pairs or groups of three, for 90 minutes each week in 30- to 45-minute, in-person sessions. The evaluation encountered some delays in gathering data, affecting both the...

A recent publication in Language Teaching Research compared the effect of a gamified collaborative intervention to non-gamified collaborative learning on students’ English reading outcomes and motivation. The participants were two classes of junior secondary students at a school in northern China. One class (N=52) was assigned to the experiment group receiving gamified instruction, while another class (N=52), the control group, received non-gamified instruction. All students were native speakers of Chinese learning English as a foreign language. Both groups received their assigned program on learning word meaning through morphological analysis for a total of ten 55-minute sessions from the same instructor with the same materials, but only the experimental group was exposed to physical game elements.  Although both gamification and game-based learning share game-design elements, they differ in nature. Game-based learning involves the design of complete games, while gamification only employs game-design elements to make learning more game-like. In this research,...

Considering the rapid growth and affordability of mobile technology, learning that involves a mobile device has become a fast-growing research field. In a recent meta-analysis, Wang and colleagues analyzed 85 studies from 78 articles published between 2014 and 2022 to investigate the impact of mobile technology usage on cognitive, affective, and behavioral learning outcomes and identify potential moderators for each outcome. Included studies compared the use of mobile technology for learning with either a non-technology or traditional technology group (e.g., desktop computers) in primary and secondary education. Separate meta-analyses were conducted for cognitive, affective, and behavioral learning outcomes. The study reviewed 109 effect sizes for cognitive outcomes, 37 for affective outcomes, and 14 for behavioral outcomes. Overall, mobile technologies had a medium positive effect on all three types of learning outcomes (cognitive: g = +0.50, affective: g = +0.45, behavioral: g = +0.34). Results of moderator analysis indicated: For cognitive...