Lynn S. Fuchs, Amelia S. Malone, Kristopher J. Preacher, Douglas Fuchs, Amber Y. Wang, and Rachel Pachmayr (2019). Vanderbilt University.
Reviewed: March 2020
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Fraction Calculations (Malone & Fuchs, 2017) |
Targeted Math Intervention vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
(Super Solvers) + (Super Solvers + Error Analysis) vs. Control;
|
6.45 |
2.08 |
Yes |
|
|
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP-revised; U.S. Department of Education, 1990-2009), 17 selected items (Fuchs et al., 2019) |
Targeted Math Intervention vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
(Super Solvers) + (Super Solvers + Error Analysis) vs. Control;
|
6.36 |
6.05 |
No |
-- |
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
0-2 Fraction Number Line |
Targeted Math Intervention vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
(Super Solvers) + (Super Solvers + Error Analysis) vs. Control;
|
0.31 |
0.51 |
Yes |
|
|
|
Ordering Fractions |
Targeted Math Intervention vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
(Super Solvers) + (Super Solvers + Error Analysis) vs. Control;
|
5.94 |
2.47 |
Yes |
|
|
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
| Black | 44% | |
| Other or unknown | 33% | |
| White | 23% |
| Hispanic | 23% | |
| Not Hispanic or Latino | 77% |
This study takes place in a school district in a U.S. southeastern metropolitan city.
The Super Solvers group included 52% female, 43% African-Americans, 23% white students, 25% Hispanic students, 9% classified as other, 9% who received special education services, 27% who were classified as English learners, and 52% who qualified for subsidized lunch. The Super Solvers + Error Analysis group included 50% female, 46% African-Americans, 20% white students, 24% Hispanic students, 10% classified as other, 14% who received special education services, 28% who were classified as English learners, and 52% who qualified for subsidized lunch. The comparison group included 47% female, 43% African-Americans, 29% white students, 21% Hispanic students, 7% classified as other, 13% who received special education services, 23% who were classified as English learners, and 58% who qualified for subsidized lunch.
For this aggregated contrast, the Super Solvers and the Super Solvers + Error Analysis (EA) conditions were combined. Students in both conditions received intervention in dyads in 40-minute sessions, 3 times a week for 13 weeks. The intervention focused on two components of the Super Solvers program: Fraction Action (focused on fraction magnitude understanding) and Calculations Quest (focused on fraction calculation). During the first 21 lessons, Fraction Action comprises 17 minutes of the first 21 lessons, and then beginning with Lesson 22, decreases to just 10 minutes of review. Calculations Quest comprises only five minutes of Lessons 13 to 21 but then increases to 15 minutes in Lesson 22. Lessons 4 to 13 also include five minutes focused on whole-number multiplication, and Lesson 22 includes a brief two- minute activity focused on multiplication fluency. Each lesson includes three minutes of discussion on self-regulated learning and three minutes focused on building magnitude fluency. Lessons 4 to 39 conclude with seven minutes of independent practice, though during some weeks, progress monitoring in the form of curriculum-based measurement tasks replaces the practice. The Super Solvers + Error Analysis (EA) group (45 students) received the same instruction as the Super Solvers "Only" group, except that the EA condition added an instructional strategy focused on the conceptual and strategic error analysis of fraction calculations. Error analysis related to checking fraction calculations, which occurred during Calculations Quest in Lessons 13 to 39 for this group.
The comparison condition for this contrast was business-as-usual math instruction, which involved regular mathematics instruction, and for some students, supplemental math intervention. Regular mathematics instruction occurred during a 60- to 90-minute block five days per week. Approximately 15% of comparison group students received the school’s regular supplemental math intervention (M = 149.38 minutes per week, SD = 91.20). The researchers analyzed the fraction components of the math standards and administered a survey to the 36 teachers who taught math in the 49 participating classrooms to learn about the fourth- and fifth-grade fraction instruction. They concluded that the intervention conditions placed greater emphasis on fraction magnitude using number lines, benchmarking fractions, and understanding the meaning of numerator and denominator, while the comparison group condition placed greater emphasis on shaded pictures, procedural methods, and pictorial representations.
Training of tutors (most of whom were graduate students) involved two stages. During the first stage, tutors participated in 20 hours of overview, demonstration, and practice in pairs. Once they achieved 95 percent implementation accuracy in practice, they began tutoring with students. The second phase of training involved weekly meetings with research staff to solve any problems that had arisen and to train on upcoming content. All implementation sessions were audio-recorded, and researchers listened to the recordings and conducted live observations to provide feedback on fidelity of implementation. Test administrators were graduate student research assistants who received training on testing procedures and passed fidelity checks. Two RAs, blind to study conditions, scored each test, and any discrepancies were discussed and resolved. Testing sessions were audio-recorded, and 20 percent of the recordings were randomly selected for accuracy checks.
An indicator of the effect of the intervention, the improvement index can be interpreted as the expected change in percentile rank for an average comparison group student if that student had received the intervention.
For more, please see the WWC Glossary entry for improvement index.
An outcome is the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are attained as a result of an activity. An outcome measures is an instrument, device, or method that provides data on the outcome.
A finding that is included in the effectiveness rating. Excluded findings may include subgroups and subscales.
The sample on which the analysis was conducted.
The group to which the intervention group is compared, which may include a different intervention, business as usual, or no services.
The timing of the post-intervention outcome measure.
The number of students included in the analysis.
The mean score of students in the intervention group.
The mean score of students in the comparison group.
The WWC considers a finding to be statistically significant if the likelihood that the finding is due to chance alone, rather than a real difference, is less than five percent.
The WWC reviews studies for WWC products, Department of Education grant competitions, and IES performance measures.
The name and version of the document used to guide the review of the study.
The version of the WWC design standards used to guide the review of the study.
The result of the WWC assessment of the study. The rating is based on the strength of evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention. Studies are given a rating of Meets WWC Design Standards without Reservations, Meets WWC Design Standards with Reservations, or >Does Not Meet WWC Design Standards.
A related publication that was reviewed alongside the main study of interest.
Study findings for this report.
Based on the direction, magnitude, and statistical significance of the findings within a domain, the WWC characterizes the findings from a study as one of the following: statistically significant positive effects, substantively important positive effects, indeterminate effects, substantively important negative effects, and statistically significant negative effects. For more, please see the WWC Handbook.
The WWC may review studies for multiple purposes, including different reports and re-reviews using updated standards. Each WWC review of this study is listed in the dropdown. Details on any review may be accessed by making a selection from the drop down list.
Tier 1 Strong indicates strong evidence of effectiveness,
Tier 2 Moderate indicates moderate evidence of effectiveness, and
Tier 3 Promising indicates promising evidence of effectiveness,
as defined in the
non-regulatory guidance for ESSA
and the regulations for ED discretionary grants (EDGAR Part 77).
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