What Works Clearinghouse

What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) is a digital library of educational research which focuses on evidence-based education.

A 2006 report described that many researchers perceived the WWC to be passive cataloger of available research.^[1] In contrast to that view, the paper described a series of opinionated subjective decisions which the WWC made about providing some educational research and declining to index another sort.^[1]

WWC was established in 2002 as a project of the Institute of Education Sciences.^[2]

The WWC recommendations for interpreting the results of single-case educational studies is the subject of discussion.^[3][4][5]

The WWC has systems for evaluating the effectiveness of educational research in general^[6] and curricula.^[7]

Various researchers use WWC itself as the platform through which they access other research.^[8]

Some of the concerns expressed about WWC are that it appears to have difficulty keeping up with the research so it may not be current; and when a program is not listed on their database, it may be that it did not meet their criteria or they have not yet reviewed it, but it's not clear which.^[9] In addition Straight Talk on Evidence, authored by the Arnold Ventures LLC’ Evidence-Based Policy team , on January 16, 2018 expressed concerns about the validity of the ratings provided by WWC. It says WWC in some cases reported a "preliminary outcome when high-quality RCTs found no significant effects on more important and final educational outcomes".^[10]