Explore the evidence

12 of 88 decisions · clear everything

Survives the gold standard Independent, durable, rigorous The debunked shelf Cheap wins For parents at home Famous numbers, deflated Where we admit ignorance The terrain

evidenceall drop D A–B A only

evaluatorany no dev-led independent

durabilityany follow-up ≥1yr ≥2yr

what are these? →

Your situation · from the applicability layer — absence means “not yet assessed,” never “doesn’t apply”

who's delivering

group / setting

cost

outcome class

Systematic phonics beats whole language for word reading — largest in K-1 and for at-risk readers; near-null for comprehension and past grade 3.

strong supportconf: highgc: low

18/1836/48connected:Does teaching a growth mindset rai Does homeschooling raise achieveme Phonemic awareness training (and w Reading-comprehension strategy ins+3

Systematic/explicit phonics vs whole language and balanced literacy · reading · ages 4–9

Smaller classes buy real K-1 gains that fade on tests yet persist in attainment — at roughly triple tutoring's cost, and diluted to nothing when scaled fast.

mixedconf: highgc: low

7/748/48connected:Tutoring Does educational technology raise Teacher quality

Class-size reduction · class-size · ages 4–18 · structure

Yes, on their own terms: lottery-assigned museum and theatre trips move blind-rated analysis of art, plot knowledge and tolerance by 0.08-0.18 SD weeks later, and a film of the same play moves nothing.

moderate supportconf: mediumgc: low

4/414/48connected:Does arts education raise academic Does teaching visual art produce a

Are museum and theatre trips worth the day out of school? · arts · ages 8–18

Comprehension is knowledge — but vocabulary teaching moves standardized comprehension only d≈0.10. The big content-knowledge bet (Core Knowledge lottery, 0.24) is real and unreplicated.

moderate supportconf: mediumgc: low

5/518/48connected:Curriculum choice as a school-leve Should history be built on content Math curriculum choice Systematic/explicit phonics vs who+3

Background knowledge and vocabulary as drivers of reading comprehension · reading · ages 5–14

Phonemic awareness transfers to reading only with letters attached: speech-only training peaks near 10 hours and moves reading d=0.19; with print, 0.66.

moderate supportconf: mediumgc: low

6/67/48connected:Systematic/explicit phonics vs who

Phonemic awareness training (and whether it needs letters) · reading · ages 4–7

Guided oral reading works, but the ingredient is volume, not repetition: at equal exposure, re-reading has no edge over wide reading.

moderate supportconf: mediumgc: low

4/46/48

Reading fluency — guided repeated oral reading, and whether repetition matters · reading · ages 6–12

The headline effects are a measurement artefact: drama gives d≈0.89 on researcher-made tests and d≈0.29 on standardized ones, and the two randomised trials with standardized outcomes are null.

mixedconf: mediumgc: medium

7/715/48connected:Does arts education raise academic

Does classroom drama build verbal and literacy skills? · arts · ages 5–16

Sort by what the software replaces: adaptive drill inside the school day buys +0.05-0.20 SD; a device, a connection or the teacher buys zero to negative; LLM tutors have no usable evidence at all.

mixedconf: mediumgc: low

53/5339/48connected:Placement and mastery diagnosis Mastery learning (teach → test → r Tutoring Class-size reduction

Does educational technology raise learning — CAI, adaptive software, devices, screens, and AI tutors? · edtech · ages 5–18 · structure

Reading Recovery buys large short-term gains at high cost; the only US long-term estimate is negative. Early 1:1 tutoring works — this model's durability is unproven.

mixedconf: mediumgc: low

5/527/48connected:Systematic/explicit phonics vs who

Reading Recovery and Tier-2 1:1 early-literacy tutoring · reading · ages 5–8

Strategy instruction is a one-time boost, not a trainable skill: six sessions buy what fifty do, and modern at-scale trials are ~null.

mixedconf: mediumgc: low

4/46/48connected:Does teaching grammar improve chil Systematic/explicit phonics vs who Background knowledge and vocabular Does teaching spelling work, and w

Reading-comprehension strategy instruction (reciprocal teaching, summarizing, questioning) · reading · ages 8–14

No. The two randomised programmes that tested it — 42 Houston schools and five EEF trials across 400 English schools — return nulls on reading and maths; only writing, the outcome nearest the treatment, moves.

no effectconf: mediumgc: low

4/49/48connected:Does teaching movement transfer to Does teaching visual art produce a Are museum and theatre trips worth Does classroom drama build verbal

Does arts education raise academic achievement? · arts · ages 5–14

Nobody has tested it. There is no controlled trial in which art instruction is the input and independently measured art skill is the outcome — the field's core claim is the one it never studied.

insufficientconf: lowgc: medium

6/618/48connected:Does arts education raise academic Brain Gym, Whole Brain Teaching, a Are museum and theatre trips worth

Does teaching visual art produce artistic skill? · arts · ages 4–18

The URL is the state — any view you build here is a permalink you can hand to someone mid-argument.