The SPARK program produced a small but statistically significant positive impact on reading achievement of 0.12 standard deviations in a two-year RCT¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3 · i0 negligible
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i0 In a randomized control trial across six Milwaukee Public Schools, SPARK participants outperformed control students on standardized MAP reading achievement, with a pooled effect of 0.12 standard deviations significant at the 5% level. → Curtis Jones 2018

Evidence¶

Curtis Jones 2018¶

Curtis Jones. (2018). SPARK Early Literacy: Testing the Impact of a Family–School–Community Partnership Literacy Intervention. School Community Journal, 28(2). http://www.schoolcommunitynetwork.org/SCJ.aspx

q3 · i0 · causal · r2

Two-year student-level randomized control trial: 251 kindergarten through second-grade students assigned to SPARK and 245 to business-as-usual control, stratified by grade within school. Separate generalized linear models with robust standard errors were pooled; the article reports a significant impact on reading achievement of "0.12 standard deviations" (an effect size below d = 0.2).

"Overall, SPARK was found to have a significant impact on reading achievement of 0.12 standard deviations. This finding is significant at the 5% probability level."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• School-level assignment to the Open Court Reading (Imagine It!) curriculum does not produce a statistically significant impact on elementary students' reading achievement relative to business-as-usual control curricula in either study year — related
• SPARK showed no statistically significant impact on regular school day attendance — related
• Prior randomized studies of Future Forward/SPARK met WWC standards Without Reservations and found positive impacts on literacy and attendance — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)