Category: Educational Administration and Leadership

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Educational Administration and Leadership Primary School Education Programme Evaluation

The impact of tutoring programs at scale

Kraft and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 265 randomized controlled trials evaluating the effects of 340 tutoring programs to understand what impacts should be expected from tutoring programs when implemented at scale in the U.S., using standardized tests as outcome measures. Most of the included studies were conducted in elementary school and in reading.

The results showed that as the number of students served by the tutoring programs increased, the effects tended to decline. The average effect size was +0.44 for programs with fewer than 99 students and +0.30 for those with 100–399 students. For large-scale tutoring studies, the effect size was +0.21 with 400–999 students and +0.16 with more than 1,000 students. The authors noted that these effects remain substantial. However, similar effects to those observed in the full set of meta-analytic studies should not be expected when tutoring is implemented at scale. The wide variability in effect sizes also suggests that individual programs differ considerably in effectiveness.

The authors tested hypotheses to explain this pattern. One possible reason is that it becomes more difficult to maintain high-quality implementation as the number of students increases. Another is that, in large-scale evaluations, program features are often adjusted to make tutoring more feasible—for example, by assigning each tutor to larger groups of students.

The authors concluded that the effects of tutoring observed in their study remain meaningful and relevant for both practice and policy. But it is also important to maintain realistic expectations about the impact of tutoring when it is implemented broadly in real-world school settings.

 

Source (Open Access): Kraft, Matthew A., Beth E. Schueler, and Grace Falken. (2024). What Impacts Should We Expect from Tutoring at Scale? Exploring Meta-Analytic Generalizability. (EdWorkingPaper: 24-1031). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/zygj-m525… Read the rest

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Educational Administration and Leadership K-12 Education

The link between STEM teacher PD and student achievement

Although schools invest heavily in professional development to improve math and science instruction, there has been limited clarity on how these efforts affect teachers and whether changes at the teacher level lead to student learning gains. A new EdWorkingPaper from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University synthesizes findings from 46 randomized controlled trials to investigate the chain of effects from teacher PD to student outcomes.

On average, PD programs produced a large positive impact on teacher outcomes, including knowledge and instructional practice (ES = +0.52). Not all improvements were equally consequential for students. A one standard deviation improvement in instructional practice was associated with a +0.24 standard deviation gain in student achievement, while changes in teacher knowledge showed a smaller and non-significant relationship. PD programs that emphasized formative assessment or included a clear focus on deepening teacher knowledge were more likely to improve instruction.

These findings suggest that strengthening classroom instruction is a critical mechanism for translating teacher professional development into better student outcomes in math and science.

 

Source (Open Access): Lynch, Kathleen, Kathryn E. Gonzalez, Heather C. Hill, and Ramsey Merritt. (2025). A Meta-Analysis of the Experimental Evidence Linking Mathematics and Science Professional Development Interventions to Teacher Knowledge, Classroom Instruction, and Student Achievement. (EdWorkingPaper: 24-1023). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/r79z-tf23… Read the rest

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Educational Administration and Leadership K-12 Education Language Development

Learning to read: The dis-advantage of digital practices for younger learners

As digital devices replace physical books in classrooms and homes, many parents, teachers, and school administrators wonder whether this digital reading practice has the same benefits for developing readers as traditional books. Altamura, Vargas, and Salmeron tackled this question in a recently published study in the Review of Educational Research, specifically studying the effect of “leisure” reading on a digital device on reading comprehension. They reviewed 26 studies (representing 469,564 individuals) published between 2000 and 2022.

The authors found an effect size (correlation) of r = 0.06. This shows a link between greater leisure digital reading activities and greater reading comprehension. However, this effect size pales in comparison to prior effect sizes from reviews of print-reading leisure on reading comprehension, which averages closer to r = 0.35 for grades 1-12. The authors also identified substantive variation in this effect by age group: the relationship was negative for students in primary and middle school grades but positive for high school and college age, implying that digital reading in younger students has a negative impact on their reading comprehension.

Of note for interpreting this effect size, the digital reading activities included not just reading of virtual texts but other online “reading” activities including email, browsing the internet, chatting online, etc. However, the authors’ investigation comparing more text-based (“linear”) activities to more social-communicative activities did not reveal a significant difference in the relationship to reading comprehension.

These findings mirror conclusions found in other research studies of print vs digital reading that have been summarized in BEIB and may be accessed here.

 

Source: Altamura, L., Vargas, C., & Salmerón, L. (2025). Do new forms of reading pay off? A meta-analysis on the relationship between leisure digital reading habits and text comprehension. Review of Educational Research, 95(1), 53–88. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543231216463… Read the rest

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Educational Administration and Leadership K-12 Education

Using district messaging platforms to reduce chronic absenteeism

In the years since COVID, chronic absenteeism has remained a serious concern across the United States, negatively impacting student learning and achievement. Given the breadth of absenteeism, it is beneficial to identify cost-effective means of improving attendance for a large number of students. Musaddiq and colleagues sought to address this through personalized monthly email and text messages sent to parents through the messaging platforms used by four public school districts in the metro-Atlanta area of Georgia. Messages were designed to inform parents about the number of absences their children had and how that number compared to their peers’.

Results showed that for students whose caregivers were sent the messages (n=>28,300), the probability of chronic absenteeism was reduced by 2 percentage points, although not all caregivers received the message; students whose caregivers received the text messages saw greater reductions in end-of-year absences and the probability of chronic absenteeism (a decrease of 4 percentage points) than non-experimental district students (n=>347,300).

The study also pointed to useful practical findings related to reaching parents. The researchers noted that many parents were not reachable through existing district messaging platforms, that emails were more often received than text messages, and that the parents of students who were most in need of improving attendance were the most difficult to reach. These findings highlight that “light-touch, low-cost, and scalable” parental outreach efforts through existing platforms can have a positive impact on chronic absenteeism, but also point to ways to further enhance programmatic impact, for instance working with districts and schools to identify additional correct means of contacting parents, for instance.

 

Source: Musaddiq, T., Prettyman, A., & Smith, J. (2024). Using existing school messaging platforms to inform parents about their child’s attendance. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 17(4), 770–805. https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2023.2264841… Read the rest

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Educational Administration and Leadership Primary School Education Secondary School Education

Understanding the impact of cyberbullying over time: Insights from longitudinal studies

While research has established a strong link between traditional bullying and mental health problems, far less is known about how cyberbullying impacts young people over time. To address this gap, a recent meta-analysis focused exclusively on longitudinal studies to provide a more robust understanding of the temporal relationship between cyberbullying victimization and various mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, loneliness, and post-traumatic stress. The analysis synthesized findings from 27 longitudinal studies, encompassing 27,133 participants 8-19 years old.

The results revealed a significant positive association between cyberbullying victimization and general mental health difficulties over time (r = 0.23). The association was particularly strong for depression (r = 0.27) and anxiety (r = 0.23). While positive correlations were also found for loneliness (r = 0.17); body image concerns, negative cognition, low self-esteem, psychological distress (r = 0.02); and somatic complaints, sleep issues, and stress (r = 0.23), these did not reach statistical significance—likely due to the limited number of studies available for these specific outcomes.

Cultural background and the time interval between assessments did not significantly moderate these associations. Further analysis through meta-regression revealed that the negative impact of cyberbullying victimization was more pronounced among older children, in samples with a higher proportion of males, and in more recent studies—perhaps reflecting growing awareness or shifts in digital behaviors.

 

Source (Open Access): Lee, J., Choo, H., Zhang, Y., Cheung, H. S., Zhang, Q., & Ang, R. P. (2025). Cyberbullying victimization and mental health symptoms among children and adolescents: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 15248380241313051. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380241313051… Read the rest

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Achievement Educational Administration and Leadership Kindergarten

Can learning apps at home enhance children’s school readiness?

A study by Niklas and colleagues investigated the impact of Learning4Kids, an app-based family intervention approach, on enhancing kindergarten children’s literacy and mathematics skills before they enter school. The study involved 500 German children (mean age 5 years) who were recruited in two cohorts and randomly assigned to one of two intervention groups or one of two control groups:

  1. Literacy intervention group (n=151)
  2. Mathematics intervention group (n=151)
  3. Control group with tablets with control apps (n=98)
  4. Control group without tablets (n=100)

The intervention lasted approximately six months, with children using specially designed high-quality educational apps at home. The literacy apps focused on letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and language development, while the mathematics apps targeted number knowledge, counting, and measurement. Crucially, these apps were developed avoiding distracting elements while promoting active learning with appropriate difficulty progression. The control apps did not focus on literacy and numeracy but rather on general cognitive abilities.

After controlling background information and intelligence, children in the intervention groups significantly outperformed those in the control groups in their respective domains. The literacy intervention was particularly effective for letter knowledge and phonological awareness, and the mathematics intervention for number knowledge and backwards counting. Importantly, longer app usage correlated with greater skill improvements, with an average of 4.5 minutes of daily use producing a 0.1 SD gain in mathematical competence and 2.5 min a 0.1 SD gain in literary competence.

These findings demonstrated that high-quality educational apps can be a cost-effective, accessible way to support kindergarten children’s school readiness. However, the researchers emphasize that most commercially available educational apps lack empirical validation and may not deliver similar benefits.

 

Source (Open Access): Niklas, F., Birtwistle, E., Mues, A., & Wirth, A. (2025). Learning apps at home prepare children for school. Child Development, 96(2), 577–590. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14184… Read the rest