No individual alphabetics outcome reached statistical significance in the WWC analysis¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · quant-synthesisr1·q2·i1small
Currency · newest study 2007 · checked against its sources 2026-10-15 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
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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.
q2 i1 Individual phonological awareness, letter knowledge, print awareness and phonics findings were not statistically significant after WWC corrections for clustering and multiple comparisons. → Voyager Universal Literacy System® — WWC Intervention Report 2007
Evidence¶
Voyager Universal Literacy System® — WWC Intervention Report 2007¶
Voyager Universal Literacy System® — WWC Intervention Report. (2007). What Works Clearinghouse, U.S. Department of Education. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/InterventionReport/538
q2 · i1 · WWC domain average effect size 0.28, not statistically significant · quant-synthesis · r1
WWC re-analysis of findings from both studies; corrections for clustering and multiple comparisons were needed, "so the significance levels differ from those reported in the original studies." The WWC prints an effect size for each finding: across the two studies the individual alphabetics effect sizes range from −0.20 to 0.74 (for example 0.57 on CTOPP Segmenting Words in Hecht, 2003), none statistically significant; the study averages are 0.45 (Frechtling, Zhang, & Silverstein, 2006) and 0.10 (Hecht, 2003), and the domain average is 0.28 (+11 percentile points).
"Hecht (2003) examined effects for three phonological awareness measures (Blending, CTOPP Elision, and CTOPP Segmentation) and found a positive and statistically significant effect on the CTOPP Segmentation subtest. None of these effects were statistically significant according to the WWC analysis."
Discussion¶
Learner Variables¶
- Alphabet Knowledge and Print Awareness — outcome: instruction changes it
- Auditory Processing — outcome: instruction changes it
- Phonological Awareness — outcome: instruction changes it
Related Claims¶
- In the Nelson, Stage, Epstein, & Pierce (2005) RCT, SSL produced statistically significant positive effects on all four alphabetics outcomes — reports the opposite
- The WWC rated Waterford Early Reading Program™ as having potentially positive effects on alphabetics, based on a substantively important average effect size with no statistically significant individual outcomes — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
- In the Nelson, Benner, & Gonzalez (2005) RCT, SSL produced statistically significant positive effects on all five alphabetics outcomes — related
- In Torgesen et al. (2010), LiPS produced statistically significant positive effects on word accuracy/fluency, phonemic decoding, phonological awareness, and spelling versus a basal reading program — related
- Read, Write & Type!™ shows no statistically significant alphabetics advantages over the Auditory Discrimination in Depth® comparison — related
- DaisyQuest outperformed math-oriented control software on phonological awareness and phonics measures — related
- Read, Write & Type!™ shows statistically significant positive effects on phoneme segmenting and word attack relative to regular classroom instruction for low-achieving first graders — related
- Phonological awareness training plus letter knowledge training has potentially positive effects on preschoolers' early reading/writing — related
- The WWC found Voyager Universal Literacy System® had potentially positive effects on alphabetics for kindergarten students — related
- Author-reported statistically significant program effects did not remain significant after WWC corrections for clustering and multiple comparisons — related
- Statistically significant effects reported by the CDP studies were not statistically significant as recalculated by the WWC — related
- LiPS has potentially positive effects on alphabetics for students with learning disabilities, with statistically significant advantages on two of eight measures — reports the opposite
- PALS showed no statistically significant effects on near-transfer and far-transfer reading fluency for first graders — related
- Waterford Early Reading Level One™ and Let's Begin with the Letter People® produce similar outcomes in oral language and print knowledge — related
- Literacy First shows strong ESSA evidence of positive effects in phonics and related alphabetics, reading fluency, and reading comprehension for grades K–2 — related
- Instruction in language, phonological awareness, and decoding improved performance in the taught domain, while interventions teaching print knowledge or early writing exclusively did not — related
- Reading Recovery produces two positive outcomes: reaching average levels within 20 weeks or reliable referral for further testing — related
- An 11-week teacher-delivered phonological awareness intervention significantly improves kindergarten children's phoneme segmentation, letter knowledge, reading, and invented spelling — reports the opposite
- Alphabet instruction benefits did not transfer to letter-word identification, phonological awareness, emergent reading, or developmental spelling — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
- Read, Write & Type!™ shows no discernible effects on reading comprehension or vocabulary for beginning readers — related
- The Frechtling, Zhang, and Silverstein (2006) study showed a substantively important positive average alphabetics effect, while Hecht (2003) did not — related
- Only the discussion of the Flex vs. Plain phonics trial reports that, for students with full week-6 attendance, Flex showed greater gains than Plain on taught-letter alphabetics, decoding, and word reading; its results report no treatment differences or interactions — related
- Phonemic Awareness Training Improves Reading — reports the opposite
- LiPS has potentially negative effects on writing: comparison students significantly outperformed LiPS students on the KTEA Spelling subtest — related
- Early Reading First had positive, statistically significant impacts on children's print and letter knowledge — related
- DaisyQuest outperformed alternative reading software on phonological awareness in at-risk first graders — reports the opposite
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
voyager-alphabetics-null-significance |
title |
No individual alphabetics outcome reached statistical significance in the WWC analysis |
description |
No individual alphabetics outcome reached statistical significance in the WWC analysis |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2007 |
source_checked |
2026-10-15 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-07 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — voyager-universal-literacy-system-wwc-intervention-report-2007 |
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