Syntes: Can explicit teaching of knowledge improve reading attainment? An evaluation of the Core Knowledge curriculum (2017)

Källa: https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3278 (British Educational Research Journal 43(2), 372–393). Full evaluation report of the same trial: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED581108.pdf (EEF, July 2015).

Verified content

• [abstract] Word and World Reading, an English adaptation of Hirsch's Core Knowledge approach, for pupils aged 7–9; nine primary schools randomised to start at once, eight a year later (waitlist).
• [abstract] Progress in English after one year: effect size −0.03 overall; +0.06 for pupils eligible for free school meals; about 18% of 1,628 pupils' results missing.
• [full text, EEF report] Knowledge-rich reading material (history and geography), vocabulary lists, read-aloud, atlases and globes, for Year 3 and 4 classes over the 2013–14 school year (p. 3).
• [full text, EEF report] Post-test was the long paper version of Progress in English: spelling, grammar, narrative and non-narrative reading comprehension, two extended comprehension exercises and two writing compositions; the long version was a protocol change requested by the developers after the evaluation started (p. 12).
• [full text, EEF report] Gain scores: treatment 24.7 (n = 659) vs control 25.1, effect size −0.03 (p. 33, Table 4); −0.02 with age-standardised scores (Table 6); Year 3 −0.03, Year 4 −0.04; boys −0.13, girls +0.05; FSM +0.06 (not secure, FSM pupils not randomised as such) (pp. 33–34, Tables 6–10).
• [full text, EEF report] 287 post-tests missing (206 treatment, 81 control); one treatment school accounted for 43% of missing cases; baseline imbalance in FSM, EAL and SEN with 17 schools randomised (pp. 32–33).

Limits

• [full text, EEF report] A pilot: "The study did not seek to assess impact on attainment in a robust way"; the evaluators recommend a larger, possibly longer trial (p. 3).
• [full text, EEF report] Implementation uneven; in some lessons teachers' subject knowledge did not support in-depth discussion (p. 3).
• [assessment] Outcome is a general English test (comprehension plus spelling, grammar and writing), not comprehension of texts on the taught topics; topic knowledge gained was not measured. One school year only.

Added 2026-10-18 by the project (nightly attack run). [abstract] = from the published abstract; [full text, EEF report] = read in the full EEF evaluation report of the same trial (journal full text behind a Cloudflare check); [assessment] = the project's own assessment.