In efforts to improve our education system for All students, the Every Student Succeeds Act has developed evidence-based criteria for evaluating curriculum. Evidence-based interventions are practices or programs that have evidence to show that they are effective at producing results and improving outcomes when implemented. The kind of evidence described in ESSA has generally been produced through formal studies and research.
Under ESSA, there are four tiers of evidence:
Tier 1 – Strong Evidence: supported by one or more well-designed and well-implemented randomized control experimental studies.
Tier 2 – Moderate Evidence: supported by one or more well-designed and well-implemented quasi-experimental studies.
Tier 3 – Promising Evidence: supported by one or more well-designed and well-implemented correlational studies (with statistical controls for selection bias).
Tier 4 – Demonstrates a Rationale: practices that have a well-defined logic model or theory of action, are supported by research, and have some effort underway by an SEA, LEA or outside research organization to determine their effectiveness.
Moving with Math meets the ESSA Tier 2 criteria in a large study conducted by George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence in Education of over 11,000 District of Columbia students in grades 1-8. The results showed statistically significant achievement gains on both the Moving with Math Pre to Post-Tests, as well as Standardized tests given in the Fall and Spring.
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