Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are essential for drawing conclusions regarding etiologic associations between exposures or interventions and health outcomes. Observational studies comprise a substantive source of the evidence base. One major threat to their validity is residual confounding, which may occur when component studies adjust for…

Inconsistent reporting of critical facets of classroom interventions and their related impact evaluations hinders the field's ability to describe and synthesize the existing evidence base. In this essay, we present a set of reporting guidelines intended to steer authors of classroom intervention studies toward providing more systematic reporting…

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) exhibit problem behaviors that potentially result in lower performance in reading and related content areas. Researchers and policy makers have increasingly emphasized the need for evidence-based practices (EBPs) in reading. However, conclusions made regarding the effectiveness of the…

Varying methods for evaluating the outcomes of single case research designs (SCD) are currently used in reviews and meta-analyses of interventions. Quantitative effect size measures are often presented alongside visual analysis conclusions. Six measures across two classes--overlap measures (percentage non-overlapping data, improvement rate…

This systematic review investigated one systematic approach to designing, implementing, and evaluating functional assessment-based interventions (FABI) for use in supporting school-age students with or at-risk for high-incidence disabilities. We field tested several recently developed methods for single-case design syntheses. First, we appraised…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the quantity, nature and frequency of intervention research published in Human Resource Development (HRD) journals. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology for this study was a literature review, analysis and synthesis with specific attention to locating intervention research in HRD journals.…

Student mathematics performance and the need for work-ready graduates to be mathematics-competent is a core issue for many universities. While both student and teacher are responsible for learning outcomes, there is a need to explicitly acknowledge the weak mathematics foundation of many university students. A systematic literature review was…

People with learning disabilities are among the most socially excluded in society. There is a significant gap in research evidence showing how health and social care workers can intervene to improve the social participation of adults with learning disabilities. A systematic review and modified narrative synthesis was used to appraise the quality…

A subset of students fail to respond adequately to reading interventions. This synthesis systematically reviews studies in which students in grades K-3 responded inadequately to a Tier 2 reading intervention and were provided with a Tier 3 intervention. Descriptions of the Tier 3 reading interventions and effects are provided. To meet inclusion…

The identification of evidence-based practices continues to provoke issues of disagreement across multiple fields. One area of contention is the role of single-subject design (SSD) research in providing scientific evidence. The debate about SSD's utility centers on three issues: sample size, effect size, and serial dependence. One potential…

This meta-analysis synthesizes the literature on interventions for struggling readers in Grades 4 through 12 published between 1980 and 2011. It updates Scammacca et al.'s analysis of studies published between 1980 and 2004. The combined corpus of 82 study-wise effect sizes was meta-analyzed to determine (a) the overall effectiveness of reading…

Promoting students' critical thinking skills is an important task of higher education. Colleges and universities have designed various instructional interventions to enhance students' critical thinking skills. Empirical studies have yielded inconsistent results in terms of the effects of such interventions. This meta-analysis presents a synthesis…

Systematic reviews and meta-analysis are techniques for synthesizing primary empirical studies to produce a summary of effects. To facilitate this goal, the Campbell Collaboration (C2) supports reviews within the disciplines of crime and justice, education, international development, and social welfare. At the annual Campbell Colloquium, experts…

One of the key findings from decades of educational effectiveness research is the importance of the classroom level as a predictor of pupil outcomes. In this review, we therefore look at synthesising our best evidence from research on effective teaching, and its corollary, teacher development. In the 1st section, we will look at key findings from…

The authors conducted a synthesis of studies of reading comprehension interventions for middle school students (Grades 6-8) identified with a learning disability. They identified 12 studies between 1979 and 2009 with treatment and comparison designs and 2 single-participant studies. Findings from the studies indicate large effect sizes for…