January 2004 — Exclusive Series: SBR
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Determining 'What Works' - An Interview With Dr. Grover 'Russ' Whitehurst
5. Those studies whose designs have passed successfully through the DIAD are then included in the WWC evidence reports, and the evidence team determines the strength of the evidence of effectiveness that has been provided. The WWC notes that a study can be well designed, but their "rigorous" process may find the effects of the intervention to be small, nonexistent or even negative. In addition, since the WWC d'es not conduct its own field research, it may report that it is unable to reach a conclusion regarding a particular program's effectiveness, due to a lack of adequate studies to review.
6. There are three levels of evidence reports that may or may not be generated in a given topic area, depending on the number of studies that are looked at. The topic report would provide an overview of the evidence for all studies that meet the WWC standards for all interventions for a particular topic area, such as, "Interventions for Beginning Reading." A study report would look at one study on "Success For All," for example. And an intervention-level report would focus on all the available evidence of all studies meeting the WWC standards that focus on a particular intervention like "Success For All."
7. Throughout the review process, evidence reports are subjected to a number of evaluations and reviews from a Technical Advisory Group (experts in research design, program evaluation and research synthesis) and anonymous peer reviewers. The Department of Education will review the final reports to ensure that pre-established processes and standards have been applied to the overall process. Pursuant to final approval, evidence reports are published in database form on the WWC Web site.
8. It is the intention of the WWC to regularly update an evidence report with new studies of interventions submitted after initial publication. For example, the publisher of a literacy product that is released after the publication of the evidence report on that topic, may submit effectiveness studies on its product to the WWC for review and possible inclusion in the next report update.
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