Ecological and Population Validity of Mathematics Interventions for Diverse Students With Low Mathematics Achievement: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

This meta-analysis examined the ecological and population validity of intervention research for students with low mathematics achievement (SWLMA). Forty-four studies published between 2005 and 2019 that met the inclusionary criterion were included in this analysis. Our findings suggest, to improve the external validity and generalizability of research, more detailed descriptions of participants and the socio-cultural contexts of the intervention studies are warranted.

A systematic literature review of math interventions across educational settings from early childhood education to high school

“…Lastly, several meta-analyses and systematic reviews have included math interventions across educational settings, for instance across kindergarten, elementary and middle school (i.e., K-12; Zhang and Xin, 2012;Lein et al, 2020;Ran et al, 2021;Dennis et al, 2022), across elementary and middle or high school (Templeton et al, 2008;Aspiranti and Larwin, 2021;Peltier et al, 2021), or across middle and high school (Jitendra et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2022). In these reviews, larger effects were found for interventions conducted in the elementary grades than in higher grades, and for interventions developed and implemented by the researchers (Lein et al, 2020).…”

“…Despite the substantial number of reviews of math interventions across several educational settings and age groups, the large majority of them have focused on low performing students (Ran et al, 2021;Dennis et al, 2022), on students with psychological disorders (Templeton et al, 2008;Peltier et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2022), or on students with math or learning difficulties (Zhang and Xin, 2012;Jitendra et al, 2018;Lein et al, 2020;Jitendra et al, 2021;Nelson et al, 2022). Meta-analyses focusing on these specific target groups of students reported overall positive, small to moderate effect sizes (ESs = 0.37-0.56).…”

Data_Sheet_1.PDF

“…To summarize, the intervention might have had low ecological validity to some of the students. Ecological validity (in terms of an appropriate fit of the contents and design of the intervention to the students' needs and prerequisites; Lambert, 2015) is an important characteristic for the effectiveness a math intervention (Dennis et al, 2022).…”