Amidst the downsizing in the U.S. Department of Education, we want to reassure our audience that our Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University will be continuing and expanding our Evidence for ESSA reviews of studies that show rigorous evidence support for educational programs. Please consider sharing the signup link for our newsletter with your colleagues and/or school districts.

New EfE Listings

• BARR strengthened its evidence, receiving a Strong rating in the Attendance category for a randomized study examining its impact on ninth-grade chronic absenteeism across 66 schools in 12 states and Washington, DC, involving more than 21,000 ninth graders from three school-year cohorts. BARR is a whole-school reform program for high schools that focuses on building relationships and monitoring progress and is also rated Strong for Math, Reading, and SEL impacts.
• Classtime received a Promising rating for a quasi-experimental study examining the impact of its math assessment on mathematics achievement among students in grades 3–6 in a large urban California school district. Classtime is an assessment platform for strategic thinking and teacher support.
• Comprehensive Literacy: Making the Connections received a Promising rating for a study of its effects on third graders. It is a professional development program delivered over 6–8 months where the participants receive literacy instruction that debunks common misconceptions and provides practical strategies for effective teaching.
• Coursemojo, an ELA teaching and learning platform, strengthened its evidence by receiving a second qualifying Moderate study involving 3,000 sixth-grade students across twelve middle schools.
• EdPuzzle Originals received a Promising rating for a randomized study of students in grades 3-5 in a rural district. EdPuzzle Originals is an edtech platform with interactive videos, quizzes, and slides that teachers can customize to students’ needs.
• Education Corps received a Strong rating on Evidence for ESSA for a randomized study of its effects on students in grades K-3 below grade-level benchmarks at the start of the year. Ed Corps provides in-person high-dosage literacy tutoring to low-performing K-5 students and concurrent district partnership support.
• Exact Path Proficiency + Exact Path Growth received Moderate ratings in Reading and in Math for a study of their effects on middle schoolers. EPP + EPG are digital learning systems combining personalized instruction and standards-aligned formative assessment. 
• GO Tutor Corps High-Impact Math Tutoring received a Promising rating for a quasi-experimental analysis using data from a larger multi-site evaluation of its effects in middle and high school. The program provides high-impact tutoring 1:1 or in small groups during the school day.
• Graspable Math: From Here to There received a Strong rating for a randomized controlled trial of 1,119 seventh graders in 10 middle schools. From Here to There (FH2T) is a digital game designed to strengthen students’ understanding of algebraic expressions and equation solving.
• Hoot Reading, which provides online, one-to-one literacy instruction delivered by trained teachers, received a Strong rating for its MTSS Tier III virtual tutoring program in a randomized controlled study of grades 1-4.
• IMSE’s Morphology+ Program received a promising rating for a quasi-experimental study of 3^rd graders. IMSE’s Morphology + is a professional development and curriculum program focused on explicit instruction in prefixes, suffixes, Greek and Latin roots, vocabulary development, and comprehension.
• Magma Math, a digital math platform, received a Promising rating for a quasi-experimental study during the 2024–25 school year with more than 1600 fourth through eighth graders.
• STEMscopes Math received a Promising rating for a quasi-experimental study of 4^th and 5^th grade students in the 2023-24 school year. STEMscopes Math is a comprehensive, standards-aligned core mathematics curriculum.
• Targeted Skills Instruction, a live, virtual tutoring intervention to repair foundational reading skills, received a Strong rating for a regression discontinuity study across 23 schools in NJ. 

What Gets Accepted: Featured Study Review Guidelines

• EfE Guideline of the Quarter: To qualify for “Promising” evidence (ESSA Tier 3) or higher, studies must include at least 2 teachers and 30 students per condition. Further, to avoid possible confounding, the teachers or students assigned to treatment and comparison groups should represent at least 2 schools per condition.
•  EfE Evidence Acceptance Standard of the Quarter:  A prospective quasi-experiment (i.e., matched study) may be considered for a “Moderate” rating if it meets all of the other standards for a “Strong” rating (e.g., a minimum of 350 students in the analysis sample).
• Evidence Viewpoint Blog: Compared to What? Why Comparison Groups Matter
• Best Evidence in Brief:  Short summaries of recent research in education.
• Evidence Flashback: EfE’s co-founder, the late Bob Slavin, wrote an educational research blog for ten years. Back in 2019 he bemoaned the fact that writing did not have the prominent place in academics that it deserved, and suggested a few remedies.