Teaching · Related Services

Read the study before you buy the program.

Enter what the study reports. The checklist tells you the strongest ESSA evidence tier it can support, whether the groups started out alike, how big the effect is and where the study is weak.

Review a studyWhat you get
$5one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $5

Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Related Services toolkit, $99 for 96 items.

The study review

One review per study. The example is made up.

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What you get

Teaching · Related Services$5 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
The highest ESSA tier the study can support, a baseline equivalence verdict, an effect-size reading and a list of weaknesses to weigh.
Who it is for
School psychologists, MTSS leads, district evaluators and curriculum directors choosing interventions.
Format
Browser form. One saved review per study; printed with the summary or as a blank review form; CSV to compare studies; export and import a file.
Access
$5 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Related Services toolkit ($99) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Related Services space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.
how far apart, and can you trust it
Drawn for this page. An effect size is the gap between two curves; the design decides whether the program caused it.

How to use it

  1. Find the design, sample, sites and results in the study’s method and results sections.
  2. Enter the pretest gap between groups as an effect size if the study reports it.
  3. Work through the six quality checks.
  4. Read the tier and the weaknesses together; one study rarely settles a decision.
  5. Review two or three studies of the same program and compare the CSV rows.

Review a study

The rules used

ESSA tiers

Tier 1 (strong) rests on a well-designed experimental study, Tier 2 (moderate) on a quasi-experimental study and Tier 3 (promising) on a correlational study with statistical controls, each with a significant positive effect and no overriding negative evidence. Tier 4 means a program has a well-defined logic model and is being studied.

Baseline equivalence

The What Works Clearinghouse accepts groups whose pretest gap is 0.05 SD or less, accepts gaps up to 0.25 SD if the analysis adjusts for the pretest, and does not credit studies with larger gaps.

What this is not

A What Works Clearinghouse rating, which also weighs attrition against set boundaries and many other details. Use the WWC’s own reviews where they exist.

Sources

  1. U.S. Department of Education (2023). Non-Regulatory Guidance: Using Evidence to Strengthen Education Investments (ESSA evidence tiers).
  2. Every Student Succeeds Act, 20 U.S.C. 7801(21): definition of evidence-based.
  3. What Works Clearinghouse (2022). Procedures and Standards Handbook, Version 5.0. Institute of Education Sciences: baseline equivalence and substantively important effects.
  4. Kraft, M. A. (2020). Interpreting effect sizes of education interventions. Educational Researcher, 49(4), 241–253.

The example study is made up. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.