The Evidence Behind Secret Stories®: Proof, Not Promises
Across 27 studies and 800+ students, independent research firm LXD Research measured a 1.62 average effect size, earning Secret Stories® the ESSA Tier 1 Strong Evidence rating.
One Chart Says It Best
Effect size measures how much a program actually moves student outcomes. Researchers consider 0.25 strong. The average of the 100 most-researched reading programs is 0.24. Secret Stories® measures 1.62.
What the Studies Show
27 studies across 800+ students, completed by LXD Research, an independent third-party research firm. Here is what classrooms measured.
Texas Study: Faster Mastery with Mnemonics
In just 3 months, kindergartners who learned phonics with Secret Stories® mastered their letters and sounds 5x faster than those using standard instruction alone.
RCT Study, TexasIndiana Study: Triple the Speed of Learning Sounds
Students exposed to the Better Alphabet® Song reached phonics mastery nearly 3x faster than peers without it, most within just two weeks of school.
Quasi-Experimental, IndianaArkansas First Grade Study: Outperforming the Odds
Despite starting behind, first graders using Secret Stories® surpassed all 3 control classes, with 90% reading at or above grade level by the end of the year.
Quasi-Experimental, ArkansasTennessee First Grade Study
Students learning with Secret Stories® not only surpassed grade-level standards, they were the only class in their school to do so.
Quasi-Experimental, TennesseeMaryland First Grade Study: From Struggling to Surpassing
By the end of the year, 89% of students reached grade level, despite 91% starting at kindergarten level. One-third read at a second-grade level or higher.
Quasi-Experimental, MarylandVirginia First Grade Study: Historic Growth in Spelling and Reading
Students improved an average of 252% in reading levels. Over 60% were reading at or above 3rd grade level while still in 1st grade.
Quasi-Experimental, VirginiaHow the Research Translates to Your Classroom
No curriculum replacement. Secret Stories® layers onto whatever your school already uses.
Layer it on, do not swap it in
Secret Stories® works alongside any core curriculum as a plug-in supplement. Teachers fold it into the literacy block they already run, with no overhaul required.
Teach the why behind the letters
Story-based mnemonics give students the logic behind letter behavior, engaging the visual, auditory, emotional, and kinesthetic pathways the brain uses to encode and retrieve patterns.
See measurable gains fast
Classrooms report measurable results within 30 days, with studies showing average reading gains of 1.5 to 2+ grade levels across Pre-K through 5th grade.
Trusted Where It Counts
Used in districts including NYC DOE, LAUSD, Fresno USD, and Gwinnett County.
See It in Your Classroom
The same materials behind the 1.62 effect size, packed into one kit per classroom.
Shop Phonics Class Kits Try free printables firstQuestions Educators Ask
The short answers, straight from the research and the classrooms using it.
Is this a curriculum or a supplement?
A supplement. Secret Stories® is a plug-in resource that layers onto any core curriculum your school already uses. There is no replacement, no re-adoption process, and no overhaul of your literacy block.
What does ESSA Tier 1 STRONG mean?
ESSA, the Every Student Succeeds Act, defines four tiers of evidence. Strong (Tier 1) is the top. It requires at least one well-designed, randomized controlled trial showing statistically significant positive effects. Districts can use Title I, II, and IV federal funding on ESSA Strong programs.
How fast do teachers see results?
Classrooms report measurable results within 30 days. In the Indiana study, most students reached alphabet mastery within two weeks, and across the research base classrooms average 1.5 to 2+ grade levels of reading growth.
How do I fund it?
Because Secret Stories® meets the ESSA Tier 1 strong evidence standard, it qualifies for Title I, II, and IV federal funds, IDEA funds, and most state literacy grants. Our step-by-step guide shows exactly who to ask and what to say. See the funding guide
Ready to Put the Evidence to Work?
We will prepare a formal quote your business office can attach to a purchase order, usually within 1 business day. Vendor and W-9 paperwork is ready to download.
Talk to us about district pricing →The Full Evidence Base
27 studies. 15 states. One consistent result.
Secret Stories® is the only phonics resource to hold ESSA Level 1 “Strong” evidence. Every study behind that rating is below, with the report attached.
What an effect size of 1.62 actually means
Effect size measures how much difference an intervention makes, expressed in standard deviations. It is the standard unit education researchers use precisely because it allows results from different schools, tests and year groups to be compared fairly.
For context, the U.S. Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse treats 0.25 as substantively important. John Hattie's synthesis of education research puts the average effect of a typical classroom intervention at around 0.40.
Secret Stories averages 1.62 across 27 studies
That is roughly four times the effect of an average classroom intervention, and it holds across 15 states, 14 different assessment instruments, and student populations spanning low-income, ELL, special education, rural, parochial and indigenous communities. Consistency across that many contexts is harder to achieve, and harder to dismiss, than a single strong result.
Why it works
Phonics instruction asks young children to hold dozens of abstract, arbitrary-seeming patterns in working memory and retrieve the right one at speed, while simultaneously reading for meaning. The instruction is rarely the problem. Retrieval is.
Secret Stories® attaches every pattern to a story, a character and a motion, so recall runs through narrative and motor memory rather than rote rule memorisation. Children do not have to remember that ch makes its sound. They remember why, and the sound follows.
This is why the effect shows up fastest in the populations that struggle most with rote retrieval: multilingual learners, students with processing differences, and children who arrive at school without early literacy exposure. It is also why the results replicate across fourteen different assessments rather than one favourable test.
Results hold across three different study designs
Stronger designs control for more alternative explanations. Secret Stories shows a large effect under all three.
Read that in the right order
The pre-post figure of 1.90 is the largest, and it is also the weakest design, because it cannot rule out ordinary year-on-year growth. The number that should carry the most weight is 1.30 from the control group studies, which compare against classes that did not use Secret Stories. That figure is still more than three times a typical classroom intervention.
Where the studies were run
27 studies across 15 U.S. states and Mexico, in urban, rural, parochial, indigenous and Title I settings.
Every study, with its report
Individual study summaries from the ESSA Evidence Packet. Bars are scaled to the largest effect size in the set. Where a standalone report exists, it is linked.
| Location | Grade | Effect size | Design | Assessment | Population | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia | Grade 1 | 3.01 | PALS® | Low Income | In ESSA packet | |
| Florida | Grade 1 | 2.98 | NR | Rigby®, STAR® | Primary School | Report → |
| Indiana | Kindergarten | 2.30 | NR | MAP®, i-Ready®, BAS® | Parochial School | Report → |
| Florida | Kindergarten | 2.20 | NR | i-Ready® | Low Income | In ESSA packet |
| California | Grade 1 | 2.19 | NR | DRA® | ELL, Low Income | Report → |
| Oregon | Grade 1 | 1.90 | Easy CBM®, DIBELS | Low Performing | In ESSA packet | |
| Oregon | Kindergarten | 1.89 | ISIP®, DIBELS® | Low Performing | In ESSA packet | |
| Georgia | Grade 1 | 1.83 | ISIP®, DIBELS®, ORF®, | Low Income | In ESSA packet | |
| Ohio | Kindergarten | 1.83 | MAP®, BAS® | Indigenous, Low | In ESSA packet | |
| Florida | Kindergarten | 1.65 | — | ESL, Low Income | In ESSA packet | |
| Tennessee | Grade 1 | 1.42 | RCT | i-Ready® | Rural | Report → |
| Maryland | Grade 1 | 1.41 | BAS® | Low Income, Low | In ESSA packet | |
| Idaho | Kindergarten | 1.35 | MAP® | Rural | In ESSA packet | |
| Indiana | Kindergarten | 1.28 | QE | MAP® | Parochial School | Report → |
| Texas | Kindergarten | 1.06 | RCT | Letter ID & Sound Screener | ESL, Low Income | Report → |
| Florida | Grade 1 | 1.05 | i-Ready® | Low Income | In ESSA packet | |
| Maryland | Grade 1 | 1.01 | QE | BAS® | Low Income, Low | Report → |
| Idaho | Grade 1 | .90 | ISIP® | Low Performing | In ESSA packet | |
| Arkansas | Grade 1 | .74 | QE | MAP®, BAS® | Low Performing | Report → |
| West Virginia | Kindergarten | .61 | MAP®, i-Ready®, BAS® | Rural, Low Income | In ESSA packet | |
| Michigan | Grade 1 | .51 | QE | BAS® | Parochial School | Report → |
About this table
These are the studies with full summaries published in the ESSA Evidence Packet. The packet documents 27 studies in total; the remainder are covered in the aggregate figures and in the meta-analysis below. Design codes: RCT randomized controlled trial, QE quasi-experimental, NR norm-referenced.
Measured on the assessments your district already uses
Results were not produced on a proprietary test. They replicate across fourteen independent instruments.
- i-Ready®
- DIBELS®
- NWEA-MAP®
- SRI-ISIP®
- STAR®
- DRA®
- Rigby®
- F&P BAS®
- Really Great Reading®
- Easy CBM®
- ORF®
- Words Their Way®
- PALS®
- Lexile®
All 25 study reports
Each report is a standalone summary of one study: the school context, the assessment used, and the measured result. Opens in Canva.
Note on the effect sizes shown here
Grade, design and effect size are shown where the study report states them. Where a card shows the state only, the detail is in the report itself and in the ESSA Evidence Packet. We have not inferred figures that the source documents do not state.