Emma Hart

📢 #EdWorkingPapers: Tyler Watts, @emmarosehart.bsky.social, & @drewhalbailey.bsky.social analyze 87 RCTs & find that fadeout is common across most programs. Intervention characteristics explain only a small share of differences in persistence.

📄 bit.ly/4aGrXY4

Shoutout to the larger team who collaborated on these projects: Caroline Botvin, @caseymoran.bsky.social, Susan Kruglinski, Shira Mattera, Doug Clements, Julie Sarama, Dale Farran, and Mark Lipsey.

Using experimental variation to examine the (co-)development of cognitive and social-emotional skills in early childhood Questions about the stability of psychological constructs, skill generalization, and transfer have long motivated psychological research. Despite a proliferation of theory, the field has rarely establ...

Working paper #4

Across Head Start RCT clusters, we observed 40% persistence for cog skills, 20% for soc-emo skills @ 1yr follow-up. We found some (but not stat sig) support for transfer processes from effects on cog skills to effects on soc skills.

edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1369

Predicting Persistence and Fadeout Across Multi-Site RCTs of an Early Childhood Mathematics Curriculum Intervention This study examined predictors of persistence and fadeout across multiple cluster RCTs that evaluated a preschool mathematics curriculum. We used meta-analytic methods to explore how impacts on studen...

Working paper #3

Using cluster RCTs of a math intervention, we tested whether student characteristics, fidelity, & elementary contexts affected persistence. 40% persistence at 1yr follow-up. Impacts faded faster in elementary contexts where students learned more.

edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1365

Childhood Interventions and Life Course Development A paradox has perplexed researchers studying childhood interventions: although program impacts on children’s skills often fade, some interventions have nonetheless produced long-run impacts on adult o...

Working paper #2

We set out to find all RCTs reporting initial & adult effects, and found 29. Fadeout didn't preclude adult effects. On average, adult impacts were similar in size to faded child impacts (~.05 SD). Some, but weak, links b/w initial & adult effects.

edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1367

How General is Educational Intervention Fadeout? A Meta-Analysis of Educational RCTs with Follow-Up Researchers and policymakers pursue educational interventions with the goal of altering children’s long-term trajectories. However, many effects fade quickly after interventions end. Researchers have ...

Working paper #1

Across 87 RCTs, we found that fadeout was fairly ubiquitous. Though there was variation in persistence, fadeout was observed across 12 theoretically salient intervention dimensions (e.g., age, breadth, duration). ~46% persistence @ 6-12mo follow-up.

edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1366

Why Do Most Education Interventions Fade Out Over Time? There is evidence both to explain and complicate the “fadeout effect”

Why do educational intervention impacts fade? Isn't catch-up a good thing? Are sleeper effects real? Does fadeout mean failure?

@drewhalbailey.bsky.social, Tyler Watts, and I address these questions & more in an EdNext piece & 4 new working papers!

www.educationnext.org/why-do-most-...