DOI: 10.3886/e191912v1
title: Efficacy Study of Adventures Aboard the S.S.GRIN: Social, Emotional, and Academic Skills, WestEd and 3C Institute, 2019-2023

description: The aim of the study was to explore the<br>impact of the Adventures Aboard the<br>S.S.GRIN (Adventures) program in the<br>school setting for third graders.<br>Adventures is a game-based online social-<br>emotional learning (SEL) training program<br>designed to improve socio-emotional skills<br>and peer relationships for elementary<br>school students.<br><br>The study focused on the following<br>research questions:<br>1. Is the Adventures program treatment more<br>effective than the control for improving students’<br>social-emotional skills?<br>2. Is the Adventures program treatment more<br>effective than the control for improving students’<br>social-emotional skills for students with social-<br>emotional challenges identified at the beginning<br>of the study?<br>3. Is the Adventures program treatment more<br>effective than the control for improving students’<br>social-emotional skills when implemented with<br>higher fidelity?
description: Response Rates: Forty-two out of 44 treatment classrooms were able to implement the intervention, and 43 out of 44 control classrooms were able to remain in the study and provide valuable inputs on their “business-as-usual” instructional experiences and practices. The overall attrition rate and differential attrition rate at the classroom level were 3.41% and 2.27%, respectively, which led to the tolerable level of potential bias under both optimistic and cautious assumptions provided by the WWC (2022). The overall and differential attrition rates were 16.69% and 8.11%, respectively, for Zoo U. The overall and differential attrition rates were 17.89% and 8.37%, respectively, for SELweb. The combination of overall and differential attrition rates at the student level meets the WWC standards without reservation under optimistic assumptions for all direct SEL outcome measures The overall and differential attrition rates were 0.45% and 0.51%, respectively, for both BERS and SSBI (teacher ratings of student SEL outcomes). It meets the WWC standards without reservation under both optimistic and cautious assumptions.
description: Presence of Common Scales: For each of outcome measures, the possible values are indicated in the data codebook. No survey/attitudinal measures were given to the students.
description: For teacher ratings of BERS and SSBI, we asked the teachers to rate all students with social-emotional challenges and randomly selected and rated a subsample of students without social-emotional challenges.
description: Since the study sample is a convenient sample, the findings of the study can only be generalized to the third grade students in the schools with similar characteristics as those in the study. The original study sample for both cohorts combined consisted of 1,645 third-grade students from 88 classrooms in California. Many of the schools are Title I schools (65%). The average class sizes for treatment and control classrooms were 18 and 19, respectively. Analysis of the student demographic data indicated that about one third of the students were Latinx and about 50% qualified for free and reduced lunch.. Smallest Geographic Unit: school
description: cognitive assessment test; other;