Tools of the Mind curriculum effects are mixed across evaluations: null in prekindergarten, substantial in high-poverty kindergarten schools¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r3 · q2–q3 · i2 medium
Currency · newest study 2015 · 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 A large cluster randomized trial of the kindergarten Tools of the Mind curriculum found substantial effects (ES = 0.30–0.80) on vocabulary, reasoning, and attention in high-poverty schools, but a prekindergarten evaluation found no effects. → Blair 2015 q2 i? A randomized evaluation of the prekindergarten version with a larger, more diverse sample found no effects on academic ability or self-regulation. → Blair 2015 (2)

Evidence¶

Blair 2015¶

Blair, Clancy & Raver, C. Cybele. (2015). School Readiness and Self-Regulation: A Developmental Psychobiological Approach. Annual Review of Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015221

q3 · i2 · review · r3

Large-scale cluster randomized-controlled trial of the kindergarten version of Tools of the Mind, spanning low to high socioeconomic status schools. The article reports printed effect sizes ES = 0.30–0.80 on vocabulary, reasoning, and attention in high-poverty schools, plus effects on salivary cortisol and alpha amylase and sustained reading and vocabulary growth into first grade.

"Findings from this evaluation, which included schools spanning the range of socioeconomic status from low to high, indicated substantial effects (ES = 0.30–0.80) of the curriculum on vocabulary, reasoning, and attention among children in high-poverty schools as indicated by the percent of children eligible for free or reduced-price lunch."

Blair 2015 (2)¶

q2 · i? · review · r3

The review reports that a randomized evaluation of the prekindergarten version "found no effects of Tools on any aspect of academic ability or any aspect of self-regulation." A small-scale randomized evaluation with Spanish-speaking English-language learners had found effects on executive function measures. No effect size is printed for the null result.

"However, a randomized evaluation of the prekindergarten version of the curriculum with a larger, more diverse sample found no effects of Tools on any aspect of academic ability or any aspect of self-regulation, including direct assessments of executive functions and teacher ratings of emotion regulation (Wilson & Farran 2012)."

Discussion¶

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`claim`
`id`	`tools-of-the-mind-mixed-evaluation-results`
`title`	`Tools of the Mind curriculum effects are mixed across evaluations: null in prekindergarten, substantial in high-poverty kindergarten schools`
`description`	`Tools of the Mind curriculum effects are mixed across evaluations: null in prekindergarten, substantial in high-poverty kindergarten schools`
`status`	`review`
`evidence_strength`	`mixed`
`newest_evidence`	`2015`
`generated`	by `process:wiki-ingest` on `2026-10-17`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
`sources`	2 — `blair-2015`, `blair-2015-2`

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