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¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r3 · q4 · i0 negligible
Currency · newest study 2017 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q4 i0 A likelihood ratio test found no evidence of any effect of the four passive dissemination interventions on KS2 English attainment (LRT = 3.45, p = 0.48), with each arm's effect size versus control 0.01. → Lord 2017 q4 i0 Raw unadjusted KS2 English means were similar across arms and control (e.g. CEM 205.98 vs control 205.95). → Lord 2017 (2)

Evidence¶

Lord 2017¶

Lord, P., Rabiasz, A., and Styles, B. (2017). 'Literacy Octopus' Dissemination Trial: Evaluation report and executive summary. Education Endowment Foundation. https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN84508118

q4 · i0 · causal · r3

Primary intention-to-treat multilevel (school and pupil) analysis of National Pupil Database KS2 English scores for the 2015/2016 cohort, with KS1 as baseline, across 12,397 analysed schools. The global likelihood ratio test was 3.45 (p = 0.48); "there is no evidence of any effect" of the interventions. Per-arm effect sizes versus control were 0.01 (95% CI -0.01 to 0.03), estimated at 0 months' progress.

"This yielded a likelihood ratio of 3.45 (p = 0.48) meaning that we do not reject the null hypothesis and there is no evidence of any effect of the various interventions."

Lord 2017 (2)¶

Lord, P., Rabiasz, A., and Styles, B. (2017). 'Literacy Octopus' Dissemination Trial: Evaluation report and executive summary. Education Endowment Foundation. https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN84508118

q4 · i0 · causal · r3

Descriptive check of raw unadjusted means from the NPD 2015/2016 KS2 dataset prior to modelling, reported in Table 5b. Means were close across arms (CEM 205.98, IEE 205.98, ResearchEd 206.19, How2s 206.11, control 205.95), consistent with the null modelled result.

"We also explored raw unadjusted means using Key Stage 2 English attainment data for all pupils in dissemination trial schools in the NPD 2015/2016 KS2 dataset"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Passive dissemination showed no evidence of improving literacy attainment for the subgroup of pupils who have ever been eligible for free school meals — related
• The PAL pilot found no differences in literacy or numeracy attainment between intervention and control pupils at post-test — related
• EEF interventions showed a small overall narrowing of the literacy attainment gap in favour of FSM pupils, dependent on Key Stage — related
• EEF-funded interventions improved FSM pupils' literacy outcomes with a pooled effect size of 0.06, equivalent to about one month's progress — related