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Research
Twenty studies reviewed by the WWC investigated the effects of Saxon Elementary School Math. One study (Agodini et al., 2009) is a randomized controlled trial that meets WWC evidence standards. Two studies (Good, Bickel, & Howley, 2006; Resendez & Manley, 2005) are randomized controlled trials or quasi-experimental designs that meet WWC evidence standards with reservations. The remaining 17 studies do not meet either WWC evidence standards or eligibility screens.
Meets evidence standards
Agodini et al. (2009) examined the effects of Saxon Elementary School Math compared to three other curricula using a randomized controlled design involving 39 schools and 1,309 first-grade students from four school districts in Connecticut, Minnesota, New York, and Nevada. Schools were randomly assigned to use one of four curricula—Saxon Elementary School Math; Investigations in Number, Data, and Space; Math Expressions; or Scott Foresman–Addison Wesley Mathematics—for the entire school year. Each district contained at least one treatment school (using Saxon Elementary School Math) and at least one school using each of the three respective comparison curricula.
Meets evidence standards with reservations
Good, Bickel, and Howley (2006) used a quasi-experimental design to investigate the impacts of Saxon Elementary School Math with a sample of 1,476 kindergarten through third-grade students in 57 schools from across the United States. The authors matched a randomly selected sample of elementary schools currently using Saxon Elementary School Math to a group of comparison schools based on school size, type, grade-level configuration, and student demographics. Teachers in the comparison schools used a range of other curricula.
Resendez and Manley (2005) conducted a retrospective study that included 170 intervention schools in Georgia and 172 comparison schools that were matched to the intervention schools based on student demographics, geographical location, and baseline math performance on Georgia’s Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT). The intervention schools used the Saxon Elementary School Math program recommended for each grade level in grades 1–8 between 2000 and 2005. The comparison schools used a variety of other curricula. The majority of comparison schools used traditional basal math curricula. One third of the schools used a mix of basal, investigative, and other approaches, and a small percentage used an investigative approach to teaching math. This intervention report presents the study’s findings for grades 1–5.
Extent of evidence
The WWC categorizes the extent of evidence in each domain as small or medium to large (see the WWC Procedures and Standards Handbook, Appendix G). The extent of evidence takes into account the number of studies and the total sample size across the studies that meet WWC evidence standards with or without reservations.6 The WWC considers the extent of evidence for Saxon Elementary School Math to be medium to large for mathematics achievement for elementary school students.