Category: Programme Evaluation

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Programme Evaluation Secondary School Education

Long-term effects of grade retention for older students

Research suggests that early grade retention is less harmful than in later grades, when staying with one’s peers s especially crucial. Matthew Larsen and Jon Valant examined a Louisiana policy that assigned students with low test scores to three different placements: full retention in grade 8, promotion to grade 9, or a hybrid “grade 8.5” option where students entered high school but received 8th-grade-level instruction. This hybrid approach aimed to reduce the stigma of retention by keeping students with their peers while offering academic remediation.

Using regression discontinuity designs, the authors found that the higher a student was placed, the more likely they were to graduate from high school and enroll in college across all comparisons: grade 9 vs 8, grade 9 vs grade 8.5, and grade 8.5 vs 8.  Students who were near the grade retention scores for 8th grade were less likely to enroll in college. The authors concluded that retaining older students, even with remediation, may undermine long-term educational outcomes.

Source: Larsen, M. F., & Valant, J. (2024). The long-term effects of grade retention: Evidence on persistence through high school and college. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 17(4), 615-646. https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2023.2240323… Read the rest

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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 Kindergarten Programme Evaluation

Could a short professional development program enhance children’s science learning outcomes?

A recent experimental study by Guan and Hu in southeast China investigated two approaches to improving early childhood pre-service teachers’ science teaching abilities and children’s learning outcomes:

  • The Making the Most of Classroom Interactions (MMCI) course alone
  • An Integrated Intervention Program (IIP) that combined MMCI with peer coaching

The MMCI course, based on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) framework, consisted of four 2-hour sessions focused on effective instructional support strategies, utilizing video analysis and sharing of strategy implementations. The peer coaching is a collaborative approach which involved teachers in small groups reviewing each other’s teaching videos and providing structured feedback.

The researchers randomly assigned 87 pre-service teachers, who received standard training, to three conditions: MMCI alone (n=31), IIP (MMCI plus peer coaching, n=30), and a control group (n=26). The intervention lasted four weeks, and teachers’ beliefs, knowledge, skills, and classroom practices were measured through self-reported questionnaire, video-based test, and teaching video assessment. Researchers assessed learning outcomes for 305 children (mean age = 5.69) in these teachers’ classrooms.

The findings revealed that both MMCI and IIP significantly improved teachers’ science teaching beliefs, knowledge, instructional practices, and skills. Both approaches enhanced children’s science problem-solving skills and belief about the ease of learning science, though no significant improvements were found on science competence, science liking, or concept understanding.

Notably, the IIP group demonstrated greater gain in teachers’ teaching knowledge and children’s problem-solving abilities compared to MMCI-only group. The study highlights the importance of integrating structured training like MMCI with collaborative peer coaching to maximize pre-service teacher development and children’s learning.

 

Source: Guan, L., & and Hu, B. Y. (n.d.). Effects of the MMCI instructional support intervention and peer coaching on ECE pre-service teachers’ science teaching and children’s learning. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 0(0), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2025.2493653… Read the rest

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Educational Administration and Leadership K-12 Education Programme Evaluation

Cross-age tutoring: Are adult tutors better than student tutors?

A meta-analysis published in Educational Psychology Review by Chang and colleagues provides comprehensive evidence on the effectiveness of cross-age tutoring in educational settings. Cross-age tutoring involves pairing an older tutor with a younger tutee at different developmental stages, with the expectation that both participants benefit. This meta-analysis analyzed 31 experimental studies (RCT or quasi experimental design) involving147 effect sizes of academic outcomes. Of these, 28 studies (117 effect sizes) involved tutees, while 14 studies (30 effect sizes) examined the impact on tutors. The tutors ranged from older students in grades 5 through 12 to adult tutors, including university students and community volunteers.

The researchers found that cross-age tutoring generated positive academic outcomes for both tutors and tutees, with an overall effect size of 0.34. Specifically, tutees showed significant academic improvement (ES=0.33), while tutors also demonstrated considerable learning gains (ES=0.39). Importantly, the analysis revealed that student tutors (ES = 0.37) were as effective as adult tutors (ES = 0.25) on tutees, and the intervention proved beneficial for both typically developing students and those with learning difficulties. The positive effects were consistent across both reading and mathematics subjects.

The findings have some implications for educational practice and policy decisions. For instance, the schools can effectively utilize older students as tutors, which offers both economic advantages and feasibility. However, the researchers note several areas requiring further investigation, including cost-effectiveness analysis comparing peer tutoring with adult tutoring, optimal tutoring duration and frequency.

 

Source (Open Access): Chang, A., Mauer, E., Wanzek, J., Kim, S., Scammacca, N., & Swanson, E. (2025). Examining the academic effects of cross-age tutoring: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 37(1), 19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-025-09997-z… Read the rest

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Educational Administration and Leadership Kindergarten Programme Evaluation

Can a video-based parent-child program improve preschooler’s executive function?

Growing evidence indicates that executive function (EF) plays a vital role in enhancing children’s learning, and EFs are responsive to intervention. A recent study by Lau and colleagues investigated the effects of the Parent-Child Brain Camp (The Camp), a video-based intervention program designed to enhance EF skills in children aged 5 to 6. The Camp incorporates play-based and age-appropriate interactive activities to three targeted core EF components: working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, the program was conducted online in the home environment in spring 2022. It consisted of 12 video Zoom sessions, each lasting about 20 minutes, with parental involvement to support children’s motivation and engagement.

Participants were Chinese middle-class families from Hong Kong, recruited from 6 kindergartens and social media. Eligible families were randomly assigned to either the treatment group or control group. The treatment group received 3 video interventions weekly for 4 weeks. The analytic sample comprised 79 children in the treatment group and 74 in the control group, with a mean age of 68.9 months. Pre-test and post-test scores were collected via Zoom for four EF assessment tasks. Results revealed that the treatment group showed significantly higher improvement in composite EF scores. Specifically, they had significantly higher increment on the Mr. Cucumber task compared to control group.

The study demonstrated a brief period of video-based intervention program could enhance young children’s EFs. While parents’ engagement may be an important factor in these improvement, its specific effect could not be isolated. Moreover, the long-term effects require further investigation, as does the reliability and validity of online EF assessments.

 

Source (Open Access): Lau, E. Y. H., Wu, X., Siu, C. T. S., Williams, K. E., & Bautista, A. (2025). Examining the effectiveness of a video-based parent–child program on executive functions for children 5 to 6 years old: A randomized controlled trial. Child Development, 96(2), 781–796. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14208… Read the rest

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Achievement Educational Administration and Leadership Primary School Education Programme Evaluation

School gardens and nutrition education in limited-income Alabama

As funding cuts loom over the education system, from the federal level down to local classrooms, it is useful to remember the impact education and schools can have on all aspects of students’ lives. In addition to math and reading, schools have the capacity to change students’ health behaviors and their nutrition practices. A recent study in Alabama, conducted by Sofia Sanchez and colleagues, examined the impact of school gardens and nutrition education on students’ fruit and vegetable consumption. Other studies have highlighted the positive benefits that healthy diets have on academic achievement and social and emotional well-being. However, as Sanchez and her team noted, disparities in diet and nutrition knowledge persist along race and economic lines in Alabama and beyond.

In their study, the researchers conducted a randomized trial of over 4,000 third-grade students from 99 Alabama schools, some with on-site school gardens and others without. After surveying students on their nutrition, treatment students participated in the Body Quest school-based health promotion curriculum, which focused on healthy foods, beverages, and physical activity. Researchers were particularly interested in whether the presence of gardens and BQ provided an additive impact.

Before the intervention, students at schools with gardens already reported higher fruit and vegetable consumption. Using multi-level modeling, the researchers found that BQ nutrition education increased third grade students’ fruit and vegetable intake. Surprisingly, students who participated in BQ but did not have access to a school garden demonstrated the greatest vegetable consumption increases. While not feasible for all schools to maintain gardens, the study suggests that both school and community gardens, along with nutrition education alone, can positively influence student dietary practices.

 

Source (Open Access): Sanchez, S. O., Funderburk, K., Reznicek, E., Parmer, S. M., & Hinnant, J. B. (2025). Impact of school gardens on nutrition education among limited-income communities in Alabama. Journal of School Health, 95(2), 153–161. https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.13513… Read the rest