Amira Learning: Early Intervention Software Program Evaluation

As a part of Utah’s Early Intervention Software Program (EISP), independent researchers from the Evaluation and Training Institute (ETI) assessed Amira Learning’s implementation at multiple sites in Utah and its effects on K-3 students’ literacy achievement during the 2022-23 school year. ETI examined those who used Amira Learning (treatment group) and matched them to students across characteristics such as socio-economic status, demographic information, and beginning-of-year Acadience Reading test scores but who did not use Amira (comparison group) using the Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) method. 

Findings demonstrated significant treatment effects for students in first through third grade among students who met Amira’s usage requirements (e.g., 30 weeks and 30 weekly minutes). First, treatment students in Grades 1-3 exhibited higher predicted mean scores than their matched control counterparts (see Figure 1). Second grade students exhibited the highest mean score differences, with treatment students scoring 21 points higher than their control counterparts, on average. Among this highest use analytic sample, first and second graders had effect sizes within the large effect size range (g= 0.41 and g=0.45, respectively), and third grade students had an effect size within the medium range (g=0.25). Additionally, Amira students finished the year with literacy scores within or above the “at benchmark” range.