Implementing Wit & Wisdom: An Evaluation Research Report
Johns Hopkins University Institute for Education Policy · 2022
grade Dquasi-experimentdeveloper-involvedunclear
Sample
Not reported on the publisher's summary page; schools adopting Wit & Wisdom in 2018-19 matched to nearby non-adopting schools
Population
US elementary students in grades 1-5 in districts adopting the Wit & Wisdom knowledge-rich ELA curriculum
Design
The evidence base for the best-known contemporary knowledge-rich ELA curriculum, and it is a propensity-score-matched comparison of schools that chose to adopt against nearby schools that did not, commissioned in connection with the publisher and distributed through the publisher's own website. Sample sizes, matching covariates and effect magnitudes are not stated on the public summary; the full report was not accessible. Propensity matching on observables cannot address why a district adopts a demanding knowledge-rich curriculum in the first place, which is the entire confound - adoption tracks district leadership, teacher capacity and parental composition.
Key findings
Reported associations between Wit & Wisdom adoption and higher Text Reading and Comprehension scores in grades 1-3 and higher ELA state test scores in grades 4-5, with the publisher's framing that implementing the curriculum "with fidelity improves student achievement." No effect sizes are given on the public summary and no randomised evaluation of Wit & Wisdom was located.
Genetic confound
High. Curriculum adoption is a district-level choice correlated with family composition and school quality; propensity matching on observed school characteristics does not remove it.
Replication notes
Unclear - no independent evaluation of Wit & Wisdom was located, randomised or otherwise. The absence of one is itself a finding about how the knowledge-rich curriculum market is evidenced.
DOI / URL
Effects
| Outcome | Metric | Value | Measure | Timing | Vs | Horizon | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text Reading and Comprehension scores, grades 1-3 | propensity-score-matched association | reported increases; magnitudes not published on the public summary | standardized | within the 2018-19 school year | business-as-usual | end-of-treatment | domain-skill |
| ELA state test scores, grades 4-5 | propensity-score-matched association | reported increases; magnitudes not published on the public summary | standardized | end-of-year state testing | business-as-usual | end-of-treatment | domain-skill |