Has the CommonLit 360 curriculum been externally evaluated or researched?

External Evaluation

Throughout the development process, CommonLit engaged external curriculum evaluators to provide ongoing feedback to inform the design of the curriculum based on various rubrics of curriculum quality and alignment.

In May 2024, EdReports released its review of CommonLit 360 for Middle School Edition 2.0. The program earned all-green scores in every gateway - the highest possible rating in EdReports’ review process. This article shares highlights from the review and includes a link to the full EdReports review.

EdReports is one of several organizations that reviews instructional materials for K-12 education, and this article will be updated to reflect the status of any pending reviews.

External Research

CommonLit has partnered with several external research teams to assess the effectiveness of its programs on student outcomes:

• An ESSA Level 2 (Moderate Evidence) study conducted in collaboration with Instructure (formerly LearnPlatform) found that seventh grade students’ digital CommonLit usage was positively associated with their scores on the Florida state ELA test. The statistical model projected that for every 10 additional digital CommonLit lessons a student completed, their Florida ELA test score would have increased by 1.26 percentile points, on average.
• Instructure also conducted another study on CommonLit that examined the relationship between middle school students’ digital usage and their performance on the New York state ELA test. This ESSA Level 3 (Promising Evidence) study found that students who submitted nine or more digital CommonLit lessons performed significantly better on the state ELA test than students with little to no CommonLit usage. 
• An ESSA Level 3 (Promising Evidence) study conducted in collaboration with Mathematica found that students in the “High CommonLit Usage” group saw significantly higher reading gains compared to students with little or no usage of CommonLit. These results can be translated into 2.1 months of learning or 2.5 percentile point gains. This study also included student surveys and teacher interviews among a small subset of schools. Student surveys revealed that there was higher growth in student engagement and feelings of cultural awareness among students in the High CommonLit Usage group, compared to students with little to no CommonLit usage. Teachers also reported that CommonLit 360 helped them improve their practice and that they saw a difference in their students’ literacy skills.

CommonLit is currently conducting a multi-year quasi-experimental study funded by an Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant to examine the impact of CommonLit 360 on middle school students’ state ELA test scores. The external evaluator for the grant is the research team at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education. With recruitment support from Mathematica, this study has enrolled 53 schools across 12 districts and 10 states, making this the largest-scale evaluation of CommonLit to date. With positive findings, this study is qualified to reach ESSA Level 2 (Moderate Evidence) standards and meet What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Design Standards With Reservations. 

CommonLit also conducts ongoing internal evaluations of its programs to ensure continuous improvement and submits studies for external review against ESSA standards. To date, CommonLit’s Efficacy Research Base includes one study that met ESSA Level 2 standards (“Moderate Evidence”), nine studies that met ESSA Level 3 standards (“Promising Evidence”), and a logic model that met ESSA Level 4 standards (“Demonstrates a Rationale”). Taken together, these studies have consistently found a positive relationship between CommonLit usage and students’ reading growth.

Read the full CommonLit Evidence of Effectiveness Report.