Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively

Summary of supporting research

Practice guide staff conducted a thorough  

literature search, identified eligible studies, 

and reviewed those studies using the What 

Works Clearinghouse (WWC) group design 

standards. The literature search focused on 

studies published between 1995 and 2015. 

This time frame was established so that the 

review would examine practices conducted 

under conditions similar to those in schools 

today and to define a realistic scope of work.  

In addition to the literature search of electronic 

databases and the WWC studies database, 

members of the expert panel recommended 

additional studies for review.

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Introduction 

(continued)

A search for literature related to secondary 

writing instruction published between 1995 

and 2015 yielded more than 3,400 citations. 

Panelists recommended approximately 300 

additional studies not identified in the lit-

erature search. The studies were screened 

for relevance according to eligibility criteria 

described in the practice guide protocol.

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Studies that did not include populations 

of interest, measure relevant outcomes, or 

assess the effectiveness of replicable prac-

tices used to teach secondary writing were 

excluded. Of the eligible studies, 55 studies 

used randomized controlled trials or quasi-

experimental designs to examine the effec-

tiveness of the practices found in this guide’s 

recommendations.

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 From this subset, 15 

studies met the WWC’s rigorous group design 

standards. Studies were classified as having a 

positive or negative effect if the findings were 

either statistically significant (unlikely to occur 

by chance) or substantively important (pro-

ducing considerable differences in outcomes).

Consistent with the panel’s belief that the 

recommended practices should be integrated 

with one another, many studies examined