In the Hawaii randomized trial, Positive Action reduced serious violence among boys but not among girls¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r? · q3 · i2 medium
Currency · newest study 2007 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q3 i2 Serious violence showed a statistically significant difference favoring the intervention group among boys (effect size 0.56) but not among girls (effect size -0.30, not significant). → WWC Intervention Report: Positive Action 2007

Evidence¶

WWC Intervention Report: Positive Action 2007¶

WWC Intervention Report: Positive Action. (2007). What Works Clearinghouse, U.S. Department of Education. http://www.positiveaction.net

q3 · i2 · causal · r?

In the randomized controlled trial of 20 Hawaii schools, grade 5 boys in Positive Action schools reported serious violence at 10.8 versus 23.5 in comparison schools ("12.70 0.56 Statistically significant"), an effect size of 0.56. The parallel girls' finding (mean difference -2.20, effect size -0.30) was not statistically significant, so the effect is limited to boys.

"Serious violence (boys) Grade 5 1,330/20 10.8 (na) 23.5 (na) 12.70 0.56 Statistically significant"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

Gender — moderator: an instructional effect differs by group

GenAI function, intervention duration, publication year, and gender were not significant moderators of GenAI's motivational effect — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
Positive Action has positive effects on elementary school students' behavior, with a WWC domain average effect size of 0.51 and an improvement index of +19 percentile points — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
In the Hawaii randomized trial, Positive Action showed no statistically significant effects on state standardized test scores in reading and math — related
In the Hawaii randomized trial, Positive Action significantly reduced grade retention, with an effect size of 1.09 and an improvement index of +36 — related

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`claim`
`id`	`positive-action-violence-reduced-boys-not-girls`
`title`	`In the Hawaii randomized trial, Positive Action reduced serious violence among boys but not among girls`
`description`	`In the Hawaii randomized trial, Positive Action reduced serious violence among boys but not among girls`
`status`	`review`
`evidence_strength`	`mixed`
`newest_evidence`	`2007`
`generated`	by `process:wiki-ingest` on `2026-10-07`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
`sources`	1 — `wwc-intervention-report-positive-action-2007`

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