Effect Size in Education Research

An effect size is a standardized, scale-free measure of the magnitude of a difference or relationship — how big an effect is, not just whether it is statistically significant. In education research it is the common currency for reporting intervention impacts and for combining studies in meta-analysis, with the standardized mean difference (Cohen's d, or its bias-corrected form Hedges' g) the most familiar. Effect sizes let researchers compare effects across studies, outcomes, and scales, and translate statistical results into terms practitioners can weigh.