ABSTRACT
School districts in this study were randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions allowing us to examine the impact of the treatment on (a) academic outcomes, including achievement based on scores on standardized tests (three subtests of the Iowa Assessment) in the area of language arts and project-created objective assessments of the curricular unit objectives, and (b) the affective goals of the project (increased student engagement, growth mindset, self-efficacy, and reduced effects of stereotype threat). While scores on the measures of affective outcomes did not warrant claims of treatment effectiveness, the intervention was successful in increasing the achievement (as measured by three subtests of a standardized test of achievement) of students who participated in the learning activities of the units based on the CLEAR curriculum; their achievement was significantly greater than that of their peers in the control conditions. The treatment group students also outperformed control students on the unit tests in Poetry and Research. While the average difference in scores for the Folklore and Fiction unit test favored treatment students, they were not statistically significant.
