Grantee: Zearn
Study Type: RCT
Principal Investigator: John Pane – RAND Corporation
Project Description: Zearn Math consists of independent digital lessons for students, digital and printed instructional materials, data and reports on student performance, and training and implementation support for teachers and administrators. It is designed to be a digital supplement to an existing curriculum. In this study, 64 schools in Texas were randomly assigned to receive access to Zearn Math, training for building leaders, instructional leaders, and teachers, and asked to integrate Zearn Math into their instructional practice for the two-year study period. Control group schools were asked not to use Zearn Math and to continue with business as usual for the two years. The district served high proportions of economically disadvantaged, Hispanic, English-learner, and below-proficient students, and schools were stratified by these characteristics and then block randomized.
Key Findings: There were positive but not significant effects of Zearn Math on the Texas standardized math achievement test (STAAR) for the sample as a whole and for students who were not proficient at baseline. Exploratory analyses did find a significant impact of Zearn Math on the MAP, an adaptive assessment of math achievement used by the district, with a standardized effect of .11 for the entire sample and .13 for students who were not proficient at baseline. There was a large difference in usage of Zearn between year 1 and year 2, suggesting that more research is needed to understand if Zearn could have positive impacts if used at the recommended level.
Study Citation: Pane, J. F., Doss, C., Todd, I., & Seaman, D. (2025). Efficacy of Zearn Math over two years in grades 3 to 5: An experiment in Texas. EdWorkingPaper. Annenberg Institute at Brown University. https://doi.org/10.26300/e3bq-7g59
Full report here.
The Key Findings above were reproduced from the published report and do not necessarily reflect interpretation of Overdeck Family Foundation staff.
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