Over the past few decades, urbanization and economic growth have widened the rural-urban gap not only in living standards but also in education quality. Children in impoverished areas are particularly vulnerable to psychosocial problems. While there is an increasing body of evidence regarding social emotional learning (SEL) interventions, such interventions are rarely found among children in rural China. Li and Hesketh conducted a study to examine the effectiveness of a school-based SEL programme among primary school children in a poor rural area in central China. Two schools participated in the study, one intervention school and one control school, with a final sample size of 496 (intervention = 206), ranging from grade 2 to grade 6 students. A Self-reported Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire and background information were collected 1 week before the intervention (T1) and 1 week (T2) and 5 months (T3) after the intervention. The SEL programme, mostly adapted from...

School dropout remains a significant issue. In 2018, over 2 million youths aged 16 to 24 lacked a high school diploma and were no longer enrolled in school. Among the programs funded by the U.S. Department of Education to address this challenge is the Peer Group Connection-High School (PGC-HS), a school-based peer mentoring program designed to facilitate the delicate transition from middle school to high school for ninth-grade students. Mentors are tasked with creating a supportive environment where students engage in a curriculum of group activities tailored to address the challenges linked to this transition. This curriculum places emphasis on developing critical thinking, sound decision-making, a sense of belonging, positive relationships, and motivation. In randomized controlled trial (RCT) involving six public high schools in North Carolina, the program was implemented over three academic years, spanning from 2016 to 2019. A total of 1351 students were randomly assigned to either the...

Using research data in practice is not an easy task; rather, it requires educators and local decision makers to delve beyond the summary data and dive into a series of analyses that show the performance and experiences of specific groups of students. A recent report by WestEd offers local decision makers valuable insights on using disaggregated quantitative data to understand educational disparities. Because one overall effect size might not reflect the specific performance of a given subgroup, separating quantitative data for student subgroups by specific criteria (e.g., ethnicity) provides a better picture of the inequalities that inform educational decisions. For example, is a certain outcome consistent for all ethnic groups? Does it differ by socio-economic status? Is it specific to students facing challenges? The report focuses on three measures to address disproportionality, namely, overrepresenting or underrepresenting groups of students in an educational context. Take, for example, a district with 10%...

Educational programs consist of several features that together have an impact on student achievement, such as the use of small group activities, or the focus on vocabulary enhancement. What is difficult to know is which components are the ones that make the program work and determine the size of this effect. This information would be of great relevance for researchers and program developers to design effective interventions. The What Works Clearinghouse has applied a new meta-analysis method, called Bayesian meta-analysis, with the aim of exploring to what extent program components explain the impact of interventions. To investigate the potential of this new method, WWC used a total of 29 studies on the effects of 25 early literacy interventions in K–3 on alphabetics. A pool of experts in early literacy developed a taxonomy describing the program components and coded the 29 studies accordingly. The WWC focused its analysis on 15 component...

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant repercussions on students’ academic performance. Notably, there has been a decline in students’ reading proficiency. Consequently, efforts to address these learning gaps, particularly among at-risk students, have proliferated. A recent quasi-experimental study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the Achieve3000 program and its impact on students’ achievements, as well as potential influencing factors. Achieve3000 is a computer-based literacy program that integrates online delivery, teacher-guided instruction, and at-home study options. Its primary objective is to facilitate the growth of fluency, vocabulary, writing skills, reading comprehension, phonics, and phonemic awareness among pre-K-12 students. The program offers nonfiction reading materials that can be shared by teachers with the entire class, while the software generates customized assignments based on each student’s reading level. Achieve3000 also provides three different options based on students’ grade levels (preK-2, 3-5, 6-8) and three options based on their language proficiency (English Language Learners,...

In recent research studies, concerns have arisen regarding the potential inflation of intervention effects in reported findings, a phenomenon known as the ‘winner’s curse’. This raises questions about whether clearinghouses inadvertently contribute to this issue by prioritizing studies with statistically significant results for replication or funding. The latest article by Valentine, who has experience as an investigator at the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), explores the challenges faced by these organizations in this context. Clearinghouses have the challenging task of evaluating the credibility of claims relevant to their consumers, distinguishing between more and less credible ones. This complexity arises due to the intricate nature of studies and the limited empirical evidence available regarding the importance of various aspects of study conduct. Despite these challenges, the author argues that establishing evaluation standards can benefit the research community by serving as a communication tool to emphasize crucial aspects of research design and implementation....

A small-scale cluster-randomized controlled trial investigated the effects of the Triple Q writing intervention on middle school students’ argumentative writing skills. Triple Q is a text-based argument writing intervention targeted at honing middle school students’ ability to discuss why they feel a certain way about an issue, and to present evidence supporting their viewpoint in an essay that is well-written, clear, and organized. It is comprised of 3 units of 15 lessons, 30 minutes a lesson, with each unit using two texts addressing issues of potential controversy that relate to students’ lives. It incorporates class discussion about the content of a text’s argument, analyzing the argument-related features authors used in the text, and the language choices authors used to further their stands. Students then take a stand and draft an essay, get feedback, and then revise their essays. Subjects were 494 students (n=220E, 274C) in 27 sixth and seventh-grade classrooms...

Maths Champions is a program in England that provides online professional development to pre-school staff in order to improve preschoolers’ early math knowledge. Math Champions is delivered online to one main staff member (the “Maths Champion”), who then creates and implements an action plan for the center and trains the rest of the staff. The Maths Champion is offered support online that includes one-to-one advice, early math resources, and e-courses regarding math development. A randomized control trial of Maths Champions was funded by the Education Endowment Foundation and Department of Education in England to follow up a previous trial finding that Maths Champions students made two months’ more growth than untreated control students. This previous study was flawed because not all students were post-tested. The current study re-tested Maths Champions in more settings than previously and aimed to increase the validity of the findings. Subjects were 1034 preschool students (n=638...

While many solutions to address poor academic achievement and attendance rates have focused on in-class interventions or tutoring, there is growing awareness and interest in supporting student performance through non-academic means, including health services. One such area is in addressing food insecurity through free or reduced-price meals in schools. In a recent study, Chandrasekhar and colleagues examined the influence of the Breakfast After the Bell (BATB) program in Dallas Independent Schools District on student academic performance and student attendance. BATB is a “second-chance breakfast option” for students arriving after the cafeteria has closed for the morning, in which students who arrive late to school can get breakfast and take it to class. Over the course of the 2017-2019 school years, BATB served over 819,000 breakfasts. In their pre/post study design, Chandrasekhar and colleagues used paired t-tests to examine the differences in mean reading and math scores, and school days attended...