Explore the evidence
9 of 88 decisions · clear everything
Survives the gold standardIndependent, durable, rigorousThe debunked shelfCheap winsFor parents at homeFamous numbers, deflatedWhere we admit ignoranceThe terrain
domain
survival prior
Your situation · from the applicability layer — absence means “not yet assessed,” never “doesn’t apply”
Timed retrieval practice builds arithmetic automaticity — beating identical untimed tutoring head-to-head — and the anti-timed-test harm claims have no causal evidence.
strong supportconf: highgc: low7/711/48connected:Does homeschooling raise achievemeSpaced (distributed) practiceWord problems, schema instruction,
Math-fact fluency and timed practice (and the anti-timed-test claims) · math · ages 5–12
Explicit code teaching beats little-or-no-phonics for word reading — largest in K-1 and at-risk readers; near-null for comprehension and past grade 3. The whole-language contrast is real but the smallest measured.
strong supportconf: highgc: low18/1836/48connected:Does teaching a growth mindset raiDoes homeschooling raise achievemePhonemic awareness training (and wReading-comprehension strategy ins+3
Systematic/explicit phonics vs whole language and balanced literacy · reading · ages 4–9
High-dosage tutoring is education's most reliable lever: ~0.29 SD in trials, ~0.2 well-scaled — not Bloom's 2σ. Groups of 3–4 work; 1:1 is unnecessary.
strong supportconf: highgc: low18/1830/48connected:Class-size reductionDoes educational technology raise The parent as instructorSchool spending, charters, and wha
Tutoring — the honest effect, the Bloom 2-sigma myth, and what survives scale · tutoring · ages 5–18 · method
Teaching handwriting works and transfers: freeing the hand frees composition, with gains still present at six months — even taught in groups of three.
moderate supportconf: mediumgc: medium8/818/48connected:Does teaching grammar improve chilDoes teaching movement transfer toDoes sentence combining improve wrDoes teaching spelling work, and w+1
Does handwriting and transcription instruction matter, and should young children type instead? · writing · ages 5–12
Yes — sight-reading, performance and aural skill move about half a standard deviation under instruction — but the evidence is quasi-experimental and thinner than the transfer literature built on top of it.
moderate supportconf: mediumgc: medium6/636/48connected:Does learning music make children Feedback and formative assessmentFeedback frequency and mental pracDeliberate practice and the 10,000+2
Does teaching music produce musical skill? · music · ages 4–18
Formal spelling instruction works (ES 0.54) and more formal beats less formal — explicit wins again, and it transfers beyond spelling itself.
moderate supportconf: mediumgc: low7/79/48connected:Does teaching grammar improve chilDoes sentence combining improve wrSystematic/explicit phonics vs whoExplicit instruction vs discovery/+3
Does teaching spelling work, and what does it transfer to? · writing · ages 5–18
Capitalisation and punctuation move when directly taught and directly measured, and don't move when embedded in writing programmes. A teachable subject, not a writing lever.
mixedconf: mediumgc: mediumCan capitalisation, punctuation and usage be taught directly as their own subject? · writing · ages 5–18
Classroom order is causally worth a great deal — one disruptive peer costs classmates 3% of adult earnings — yet no branded behaviour programme reliably delivers it and exclusion makes things worse.
mixedconf: mediumgc: low25/2536/48connected:Talent and trainabilityCan executive function be trained,Should a school buy a social and eAre self-control and grit teachabl
How should a school run its classrooms and its discipline system? · behavior · ages 4–18 · structure
What parents are asked to DO is the whole effect: tutoring a skill d≈1.15, listening to reading 0.51, reading aloud ~0.18 — same parent, same child. All deflate under better designs.
mixedconf: mediumgc: medium33/3336/48connected:Homeschool socialisationDoes homeschooling raise achievemeThe early home environmentTutoring
The parent as instructor — what survives when the person teaching is the person who raised the child · homeschool · ages 4–18 · method
Not yet assessed for this question · 42
- Acceleration and gifted programs — the label vs the content
- Algebra timing — acceleration mandates, delay mandates, and readiness-based placement
- Are museum and theatre trips worth the day out of school?
- Does teaching visual art produce artistic skill?
- Chronic absenteeism — does raising attendance raise achievement?
- Background knowledge and vocabulary as drivers of reading comprehension
- Class-size reduction
- Comprehensible input or explicit grammar teaching — which builds a second language?
- Curriculum choice as a school-level lever
- Explicit vs reform/constructivist math instruction
- Feedback and formative assessment
- Grade retention — holding a child back versus promoting, and test-based promotion policies
- Ability grouping and tracking — four practices, four verdicts
- The early home environment — what parents can and cannot causally move
- Homeschool socialisation — the most-asked question, and the least answerable one
- Length of the school day and year, time-on-task, extended time, and summer
- Interleaving (mixing problem types vs blocking)
- Does dual-language immersion work, and is the gain in the second language or in English?
- Manipulatives and concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) sequences
- Math curriculum choice — how much does the textbook matter?
- Feedback frequency and mental practice in motor learning
- Practice scheduling for motor skills — varied vs blocked, spaced vs massed
- Should Gardner's multiple intelligences be used as a basis for instruction?
- Breakfast, school meals, and micronutrients — what feeding children actually buys
- Phonemic awareness training (and whether it needs letters)
- Placement and mastery diagnosis — deciding what to teach next from evidence of current skill
- Preschool at scale — Head Start, state pre-K, and what universal provision delivers
- Perry Preschool and Abecedarian — what the famous studies actually establish
- Reading-comprehension strategy instruction (reciprocal teaching, summarizing, questioning)
- Reading fluency — guided repeated oral reading, and whether repetition matters
- Reading Recovery and Tier-2 1:1 early-literacy tutoring
- School spending, charters, and what school-level choices actually move outcomes
- School starting age, relative age, and academic redshirting
- Inquiry-based science teaching vs explicit and textbook science teaching
- Science misconceptions and conceptual change — can naive intuitions be taught away?
- Does sentence combining improve writing?
- Do later school start times increase adolescent sleep, and does that raise achievement?
- Teacher quality — selection over credentials and workshops
- Vision — outdoor time against myopia, and screening and correction for achievement
- Word problems, schema instruction, and the conceptual-vs-procedural question
- Does strategy instruction (SRSD, the writing process) improve writing?
- Early sport specialization, talent selection, and the relative age effect
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