PALS shows no discernible effects on mathematics for students with learning disabilities¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2012 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? In the one qualifying mathematics study (Fuchs et al., 1995), WWC calculations found no statistically significant effects on two mathematics measures, and the average effect size was below the 0.25 substantively-important threshold, yielding a no-discernible-effects rating. → What Works Clearinghouse 2012

Evidence¶

What Works Clearinghouse 2012¶

What Works Clearinghouse, U.S. Department of Education. (2012). Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies. WWC Intervention Report, Students with Learning Disabilities. http://kc.vanderbilt.edu/pals/

q3 · i? · causal · r2

WWC analysis of one RCT (Fuchs et al., 1995) with 40 students with learning disabilities in grades 2–4, measured with the Tennessee Mathematics Operations Test–Revised and the Tennessee Mathematics Concepts and Applications Test. Average improvement index was +9 with no statistically significant effect.

"Thus, for the mathematics domain, the WWC study did not find statistically significant effects, and the WWC-calculated average effect size was less than 0.25. This results in a rating of no discernible effects, with a small extent of evidence."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Peer-assisted instruction and small-group instruction by adults have large, robust short-term effect sizes for K-6 struggling students — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• PALS shows potentially positive effects on reading fluency for students with learning disabilities, with a substantively important but not statistically significant WWC-calculated effect size of 0.41 in Saenz et al. (2005) — related
• PALS shows potentially positive effects on reading comprehension for students with learning disabilities (average effect size 0.75, not statistically significant) — related
• PALS effects on the learning-disability subsets analyzed separately were not statistically significant, while the full-sample effect was significant in one study (Fuchs et al., 1997) and not in the other (Saenz et al., 2005) — related
• The WWC Adolescent Literacy review rates PALS as having potentially positive effects on reading comprehension from one trial of students averaging 9.8 years old, with an effect size of 0.48 that is not statistically significant when adjusted for clustering — related