WWC Launches Site, Releases Study Reports
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) has launched its new Web site (www.whatworks.ed.gov), which provides access to comprehensive and user-friendly reports reviewing evidence of the effectiveness of educational interventions (programs, products, practices and policies). The first wave of the WWC Study Reports, which are now available online, cover:
- Middle School Math curricula (MS Math): Curriculum-based interventions outlining the fundamentals of mathematics that students should know and be able to do, instructional programs and materials that organize the mathematical content, and assessments.
- Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) interventions: Interventions that are designed to improve elementary school learning in reading, mathematics or science, and that routinely use students to teach each other in pairs or in small groups.
The WWC produces reports on the study, intervention and topic level. Starting in the fall, study reports will be released on other topics, including beginning reading skills for struggling readers (K-3); elementary school math; character education; English language acquisition; adolescent literacy; adult literacy; dropout prevention; and reducing delinquent, disorderly and violent behavior. In September 2004, the WWC also will release intervention reports monthly, with topic-level reports to follow.
The WWC was established in 2002 by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to provide educators, policy-makers, researchers and the public with a central and trusted source of scientific evidence of what works in education. It is administered by the Education Department through a contract to a joint venture of the American Institutes for Research and the Campbell Collaboration.
This article originally appeared in the 07/01/2004 issue of THE Journal.