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Elementary School Math
Elementary School Math
July 16, 2007

Appendices


Appendix A1 Extent of evidence

Intervention name Number of studies Sample size (schools/students) Extent of evidence1
Everyday Mathematics® 4 171/12,306 Medium to large
Houghton Mifflin Math 2 Over 800/nr Medium to large
Progress in Mathematics © 2006 1 4/186 Small
Saxon Elementary School Math 1 299/nr Small
Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Mathematics 1 6/645 Small

nr = not reported

1 A rating of "medium to large" requires at least two studies and two schools across studies in one domain and a total sample size across studies of at least 350 students or 14 classrooms. Otherwise, the rating is "small."

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Appendix A2 Targeted population

Program name Targeted students (grades) Students in studies reviewed (grades)1
Everyday Mathematics® K–6 3–5
Houghton Mifflin Math K–6 2–5
Progress in Mathematics © 2006 K–6 1
Saxon Elementary School Math K–5 1–5
Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Mathematics K–6 2, 4

Note: This table compares targeted grade levels and the grade levels in the studies reviewed by the WWC. Grade levels are related to student age and may affect outcomes due to differences in the students' developmental stages as well as differences in school size and organization.

1 This table shows only the grade levels of students included in the WWC review. Some of the studies reviewed included students in grades 6 or above; however, findings for those students were not reviewed because those higher grade levels were considered to be outside the scope of this review.

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Appendix A3 Summary of statistically significant1 or substantively important2 positive outcomes

  Math achievement3
Statistically significant positive findings Math achievement across outcomes
Everyday Mathematics®
Carroll, 1998 (quasi-experimental design) ns ns, Substantively important
Riordan & Noyce, 2001—early implementers (quasi-experimental design) Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System Mathematics Test Statistically significant, na4
Riordan & Noyce, 2001—late implementers (quasi-experimental design) ns ns, na4
Waite, 2001 (quasi-experimental design) ns Substantively important
Woodward & Baxter, 1997 (quasi-experimental design) ns ns, nsi
Houghton Mifflin Math
EDSTAR, Inc., 2004 (quasi-experimental design) ns ns, na4
Johnson & Hall, 2003 (quasi-experimental design) ns ns, na4
Progress in Mathematics © 2006
Beck Evaluation & Testing Associates, Inc., 2005 (randomized controlled trial) ns ns, nsi
Saxon Elementary School Math
Resendez & Manley, 2005 (quasi-experimental design) ns ns, na4
Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Mathematics
Resendez & Manley, 2005 (randomized controlled trial) ns ns, nsi

na = not studied
ns = not statistically significant
nsi = not substantively important

1 According to the WWC criteria, if a program finds a statistically significant effect, there is less than a 5% chance that this difference is due to chance. The level of statistical significance was calculated by the WWC and, where necessary, corrects for clustering within classrooms or schools and for multiple comparisons. For an explanation about the clustering correction, see the WWC Tutorial on Mismatch. See the Technical Details of WWC-Conducted Computations for the formulas the WWC used to calculate the statistical significance.
2 For rating purposes, the WWC considers the statistical significance of the findings and the magnitude of the effect, also called the effect size. An average effect size is the sum of all the effect sizes of the student outcomes in a study in a single domain divided by the number of those outcomes. The WWC considers an average effect size across all student outcomes in one study in a given domain to be substantively important if it is equal to or greater than 0.25.
3 No studies showed statistically significant or substantively important negative findings. For a detailed description of the outcome measures, see Appendix A2 in the WWC intervention reports at www.whatworks.ed.gov.
4 Student-level effect size could not be computed for this study; whether or not the magnitude of the effect is substantively important is unknown. However, the statistical significance for this study is comparable to other studies and is included in the intervention rating. For further details, please see Technical Details of WWC-Conducted Computations.

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