The WWC review of interventions for English language learners addresses student outcomes in three domains: reading achievement, mathematics achievement, and English language development.
Reading achievement. Sáenz et al. (2005) reported that one of three outcome measures was statistically signficant (number of questions correct), but the WWC could not confirm this finding. 4 The overall size of the impact was large enough to be considered substantively important by WWC standards, so the WWC rated this intervention as having potentially positive effects on reading achievement.
The WWC rates the effects of an intervention in a given outcome domain as: positive, potentially positive, mixed, no discernible effects, potentially negative, or negative. The rating of effectiveness takes into account four factors: the quality of the research design; the statistical significance of the findings;5 the size of the difference between participants in the intervention and the comparison conditions; and the consistency in findings across studies (see the WWC Intervention Rating Scheme).
|Institute of Education Sciences
