Tag: Meta-analysis

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Educational Administration and Leadership K-12 Education

Impact of hygiene interventions on student outcomes

Chronic infections and illnesses affect more than just children’s health; they also have serious negative effects on school attendance, achievement, and engagement. Efforts to support and improve student health practices through school-based hygiene interventions may serve to improve not just health practices, but also academic outcomes. In a recent systematic review, Ismail and colleagues examined 23 randomized and non-randomized studies conducted across Africa, Asia, the United States, Spain, Denmark, and China. These studies assessed the impact of school-based health interventions on student outcomes, comparing them to standard curricula and practices.

The review focused on hand-body hygiene (including handwashing), genital hygiene, oral hygiene, and dental hygiene interventions. Hand hygiene interventions typically emphasized washing hands after using the toilet and before meals. Beyond improving student knowledge, attitudes, and hygiene practices, hand-body and genital hygiene interventions also led to statistically significant reductions in infection-related absenteeism.

Although the researchers suggest more evidence would improve their confidence, these findings are encouraging in affirming how positive health practices can improve health-related absences. Student attendance has, after all, been shown to have a vital influence on engagement and achievement.

 

Source (Open Access): Ismail, S. R., Radzi, R., Kamaruddin, P. S. N. M., Lokman, E. F., Lim, H. Y., Rahim, N. A., Yow, H. Y., Arumugam, D., Ngu, A., Low, A. C. Y., Wong, E. H., Patil, S., Madhavan, P., Nordin, R. B., Werf, E. van der, & Lai, N. M. (2024). The effects of school-based hygiene intervention programme: Systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS ONE, 19(10), e0308390. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0308390… 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 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 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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K-12 Education Language Development Maths and Science Learning

How early do STEM and verbal abilities stereotypes start among children?

In a recent meta-analysis on children’s gender stereotypes about STEM and verbal abilities, data from 98 studies across 33 nations involving more than 145,000 children were integrated. The findings reveal that verbal stereotypes favoring girls’ abilities (b = 0.19) are stronger than aggregated STEM stereotypes (b = 0.09). A closer look shows that at age 6, stereotypes reflected in-group bias—boys favoring boys, and girls favoring girls. These gender differences declined with age, and by age 16, the stereotypes tended to align with traditional gender roles: boys were favored in STEM ability, and girls in verbal ability.

Girls showed stronger pro-female verbal stereotypes than boys, and while verbal stereotypes increasingly favored girls with age, STEM stereotypes remained more stable. Girls’ STEM beliefs shifted from pro-female to pro-male around ages 10–12, while boys’ verbal beliefs flipped to pro-female around ages 8–10. By age 8, verbal stereotypes already significantly favored girls. STEM stereotypes varied by domain, with stronger male-favoring beliefs in computer science, engineering, and physics (b = 0.25), and weaker or negligible biases in general math (b = 0.06) and science (b = 0.09). Background also mattered: children identified as Black held weaker STEM stereotypes than those identified as White, especially among girls. Black children’s views were largely gender-neutral, while White children slightly favored boys.

These results suggest that stereotypes emerge early, and may shape children’s interests and academic choices. Addressing these beliefs calls for cross-disciplinary collaboration and greater research focus on understudied areas like computing, engineering, and verbal ability development. Interventions could aim to challenge or broaden stereotypes and mitigate their impact, guided by a clear understanding of when such beliefs typically take root.

 

Source (Open Access): Miller, D. I., Lauer, J. E., Tanenbaum, C., & Burr, L. (2024). The development of children’s gender stereotypes about STEM and verbal abilities: A preregistered meta-analytic review of 98 studies. Psychological bulletin, 150(12), 1363–1396. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000456… Read the rest