Found Effects

The WWC found STEP to have no discernible effects on either staying in school or progressing in school

Improvement index

The WWC computes an improvement index for each individual finding. In addition, within each outcome domain, the WWC computes an average improvement index for each study and an average improvement index across studies (see Technical Details of WWC-Conducted Computations). The improvement index represents the difference between the percentile rank of the average student in the intervention condition versus the percentile rank of the average student in the comparison condition. Unlike the rating of effectiveness, the improvement index is entirely based on the size of the effect, regardless of the statistical significance of the effect, the study design, or the analysis. The improvement index can take on values between –50 and +50, with positive numbers denoting results favorable to the intervention group.

The average improvement index for staying in school is –2 percentile points in the study covered in this report, with a range of –7 to +2 percentile points across findings. The WWC is not able to calculate an improvement index for the progressing in school domain because the study that examined this domain did not include standard deviations for the relevant outcomes.

Summary

The WWC reviewed three studies of STEP. One of these studies meets WWC evidence standards; the remaining two studies do not meet either WWC evidence standards or eligibility screens. Based on the one study, the WWC found the intervention to have no discernible effects on either staying in school or progressing in school. The conclusions presented in this report may change as new research emerges.