Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


Website Ranks K–12 Reading, Math Programs Under ESSA Standards

Image Credit: Evidence for ESSA.

A new website launched by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Research and Reform in Education (CRRE) offers insights into K–12 reading and math programs. The website provides up-to-date and reliable information to help education leaders better understand how these programs compare under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

The Evidence for ESSA website “uses [the] expertise and authority of the center’s faculty, as well as scholarly studies, to determine an academic program’s effectiveness under the new law,” The Hub reported. It sorts through research databases, locating “school-based, scientific studies and categorizes the programs that have been reliably and scientifically tested.”   

Math and reading platforms can be searched by elementary and middle/high school levels. For example, users can look up a math program specifically for the elementary school level to see whether it meets the new ESSA evidence standards. Programs are ranked using language found in the law — either “strong,” “moderate” or “promising,” depending on the quality of their ESSA alignment.

The results can be filtered by:

  • Grade level;
  • Programs designed for the whole class or struggling students;
  • Community type (rural, suburban, urban or not specified);
  • Ethnic group; and
  • An array of features, including cooperative learning, family engagement and more.

Director of the CRRE and School of Education Professor Robert Slavin told The Hub that the website functions as a consumer report of sorts, with an overall goal of helping state chiefs, district superintendents, principals and other education leaders determine how vigorously a program has been vetted.

"But there are many other people — parents and teachers, for example — who could use this information to advocate for particular programs that they think would be better for their kids. And we hope they will," Slavin said.

The Evidence for ESSA website is now live.

About the Author

Sri Ravipati is Web producer for THE Journal and Campus Technology. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Students using laptops in classroom

    Stop Asking Whether Students Can Use AI

    As generative AI has become embedded in the tools students use to search, write, create, translate, organize, and receive feedback, the boundary between "using AI" and "not using AI" has become increasingly difficult to define. More importantly, treating AI use as a binary choice does little to help students understand the different roles AI can appropriately play in learning.

  • children using smart phones

    With Little Federal Guidance, States Take on Screen Time Themselves

    As an umbrella term, education technology encompasses everything from learning management systems and student information systems to productivity tools and AI platforms. More specific language clarifying the difference between ed tech and consumer-facing tools would allow state leaders to match the right evidence, expertise, and policy to the right questions.

  • young man hand working on a laptop, bokeh blurred at night

    Redesigned Microsoft Copilot Will Build Apps and Work on Its Own

    Microsoft has announced that it's redesigning Copilot, the company's all-encompassing AI assistant, so users can hand off complex tasks, build tools by describing what they need and assign work to an agent that keeps going after they log off.

  • Abstract Network of Blue and Orange Lines

    Tech Industry Leaders Launch Alliance for AI Agent Security

    NVIDIA and 36 other industry partners are targeting agent security across multi-vendor clouds by combining open technologies for workload identity, agent controls, vulnerability scanning, and software supply-chain security.