Quick Reviews

• What types of studies are eligible for a quick review?
• How does a study get identified?
• Can I request a quick review?
• Who reviews the reports?
• What are the standards used for the review?
• What are the possible ratings?

 

Q: What types of studies are eligible for a quick review?
A: To be eligible, a study must examine the effectiveness of an education intervention—program, product, practice, or policy—that is intended to improve student outcomes. Quick reviews focus on studies of effectiveness of education or school-based programs serving students in the pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade age range, as well as those in a post-secondary setting.

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Q: How does a study get identified?
A: To be eligible for a WWC quick review, a study must examine the effectiveness of an education or school-based intervention that is intended to improve student outcomes. Additionally, the study must be recently released to the public and mentioned in a major national news source, or requested by IES for WWC review.

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Q: Can I request a quick review?
A: Quick reviews are currently limited to studies that are identified by one of the two avenues listed above.

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Q: Who reviews the reports?
A: Each study is examined by two certified WWC reviewers. Their reviews are combined into a master review and report that is subject to IES peer review.

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Q: What are the standards used for the review?
A: Quick reviews rate research evidence based on the same WWC Evidence Standards used to review studies for intervention reports.

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Q: What are the possible ratings?
A: Parallel to the standards for studies reviewed for intervention reports, a study that is the subject of a quick review can receive one of three ratings: consistent with WWC evidence standards, consistent with WWC evidence standards with reservations, and not consistent with WWC evidence standards. Because the ratings and research summaries included in quick reviews are based only on publicly available information, and not supplemented by communications with authors or subject to statistical corrections as intervention report reviews are, the ratings reflect whether a study is consistent with WWC evidence standards rather than whether it meets them.

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