Nine light-touch dissemination interventions had no impact on pupils' Key Stage 2 English attainment in a large school-level RCT¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r3 · q4
Currency · newest study 2017 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q4 i? None of the nine intervention arms (passive or active dissemination of evidence-based literacy materials and support) improved pupils' KS2 English results compared with control. → Lord et al. 2017

Evidence¶

Lord et al. 2017¶

Pippa Lord, Adam Rabiasz, Palak Roy, Jennie Harland, Ben Styles, Katherine Fowler. (2017). Evidence-based literacy support: the 'Literacy Octopus' trial — Evaluation report and executive summary. Education Endowment Foundation. http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN84508118

q4 · i? · causal · r3

Intention-to-treat analysis of a well-powered, school-level randomised controlled trial involving 823 primary schools, using National Pupil Database KS2 English scores (reading plus grammar, punctuation and spelling scaled scores) with KS1 baseline. All nine arm-versus-control effect sizes were between -0.04 and 0.03, with zero estimated months' progress.

"There was no evidence that any of the interventions had an impact on pupils' English results at KS2 (2015/2016)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Passive dissemination of research summaries and evidence-based literacy materials to primary schools showed no evidence of improving pupils' Key Stage 2 English attainment compared with control — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• The dissemination interventions showed no impact on attainment for pupils who had ever been eligible for free school meals — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Passive dissemination showed no evidence of improving literacy attainment for the subgroup of pupils who have ever been eligible for free school meals — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• EEF interventions showed a small overall narrowing of the literacy attainment gap in favour of FSM pupils, dependent on Key Stage — related
• An additional analysis using Key Stage 2 administrative test scores also found indeterminate, close-to-zero effects for Year 6 pupils. — related
• The chess intervention showed no evidence of a positive impact on Key Stage 2 scores for children eligible for free school meals — related
• RLC showed no evidence of impact on KS2 reading outcomes in a two-year randomised controlled trial — related
• The Chess in Primary Schools programme showed no evidence of a positive impact on Key Stage 2 mathematics attainment one year after the intervention ended — related