The Evidence on Teaching

Explore the evidence

5 of 88 decisions · clear everything

Survives the gold standardIndependent, durable, rigorousThe debunked shelfCheap winsFor parents at homeFamous numbers, deflatedWhere we admit ignoranceThe terrain
evidencealldrop DA–BA only
evaluatoranyno dev-ledindependent
durabilityanyfollow-up≥1yr≥2yr
what are these? →
sortconfidencerobustfragileA–Z
domain
verdict
confidence
layer
Your situation · from the applicability layer — absence means “not yet assessed,” never “doesn’t apply”
who's delivering
  • nothing assessed yet
group / setting
  • nothing assessed yet
cost
  • nothing assessed yet
outcome class
  • nothing assessed yet

Group within classes or across grades by subject: modest, nearly free wins. Whole-school streaming does nothing, and early between-school tracking harms the bottom.

moderate supportconf: highgc: low
12/1236/48connected:Do career and technical education

Ability grouping and tracking — four practices, four verdicts · grouping · ages 5–18 · structure

Accelerate ready kids: they keep pace with older classmates, bank a year, and show no social-emotional harm at 50. The gifted label itself does nothing; the content does.

moderate supportconf: highgc: medium
8/830/48connected:Algebra timing

Acceleration and gifted programs — the label vs the content · grouping · ages 5–18 · structure

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-leveShould history be built on contentMath curriculum choiceSystematic/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

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