What Works Clearinghouse Standards
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) standards are the protocol the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences uses to judge how much confidence an education study's findings deserve as causal evidence. They specify which designs can support causal claims, how to screen for threats such as attrition and confounding, and how to rate each study — Meets Standards Without Reservations, With Reservations, or Does Not Meet Standards — before synthesizing the body of evidence. The standards are a cornerstone of evidence-based education policy in the United States.
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Sources
- What Works Clearinghouse. (2022). What Works Clearinghouse Procedures and Standards Handbook, Version 5.0. Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. link ↗
- Kratochwill, T. R., Hitchcock, J. H., Horner, R. H., Levin, J. R., Odom, S. L., Rindskopf, D. M., & Shadish, W. R. (2013). Single-case intervention research design standards. Remedial and Special Education, 34(1), 26–38. DOI: 10.1177/0741932512452794 ↗
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). What Works Clearinghouse Procedures and Standards for Rating Educational Evidence. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/education/what-works-clearinghouse-standards
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- Single-Case Design in EducationEducation↔ compare