ESSA Evidence Badges — Component Reference

Overview

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) defines four tiers of evidence for educational interventions. ThinkKits displays evidence badges on tool and material recommendations to help educators make research-backed purchasing decisions.

Badge data comes from the What Works Clearinghouse (IES/NCEE) and is supplemented by ERIC database citations. Badges are assigned at the intervention/methodology level, not the individual product level.

Badge Variants

Inline Badges (default)

Use inline within text, table cells, or alongside product names.

Tier 1 — Strong Tier 2 — Moderate Tier 3 — Promising Tier 4 — Rationale No Evidence

Large Badges

Use in card headers or feature highlights. Add class essa-badge-lg.

Tier 1 — Strong Evidence Tier 2 — Moderate Evidence

Pill Badges

Larger format for detail panels and recommendation cards. Add class essa-pill.

Tier 1 Strong Evidence Tier 2 Moderate Evidence Tier 3 Promising Evidence Tier 4 Demonstrates Rationale

ESSA Tier Definitions

Tier 1 — Strong

At least one well-designed and well-implemented experimental study (randomized controlled trial) that demonstrates statistically significant favorable impact on student outcomes.

Highest bar. Studies must meet WWC evidence standards without reservations.

Tier 2 — Moderate

At least one well-designed and well-implemented quasi-experimental study that demonstrates statistically significant favorable impact on student outcomes.

Studies meet WWC standards with or without reservations. Controls for selection bias.

Tier 3 — Promising

At least one well-designed correlational study with statistical controls for selection bias that shows a statistically significant favorable association with an important outcome.

Suggestive evidence. Useful for Title IV-A and IDEA funding justification.

Tier 4 — Rationale

Demonstrates a well-defined logic model informed by research or an evaluation that suggests how the intervention is likely to improve relevant outcomes, with an ongoing effort to examine its effects.

Lowest tier. Must include a logic model AND ongoing evaluation. Often sufficient for initial grant applications.

Usage Examples

In a Tool Recommendation Card

Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) Instruction

Tier 1 — Strong

Multi-sensory math instruction using physical manipulatives before abstract reasoning.

Grades K-5 Mathematics IES Practice Guide

Manipulative-Based Fraction Instruction

Tier 2 — Moderate

Fraction tiles, bars, and circles for conceptual understanding of part-whole relationships.

Grades 3-5 Mathematics WWC Intervention Report

In a Table Row

Intervention	Evidence	Source
CRA Math Instruction	Strong	IES Practice Guide (2009, 2021)
Peer-Assisted Learning	Moderate	WWC Intervention Report
STEM Maker Kits	Promising	ERIC Research Review

HTML Snippets

Copy these directly into any ThinkKits HTML page. The CSS classes are defined above.

Inline Badge

<span class="essa-badge essa-t1">
  <svg class="essa-icon" viewBox="0 0 16 16" fill="none">
    <circle cx="8" cy="8" r="7" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5"/>
    <path d="M5 8l2 2 4-4" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5"
          stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"/>
  </svg>
  Tier 1 — Strong
</span>

CSS Classes

.essa-t1  →  Tier 1 (Strong)    — Green
.essa-t2  →  Tier 2 (Moderate)  — Blue
.essa-t3  →  Tier 3 (Promising) — Yellow
.essa-t4  →  Tier 4 (Rationale) — Gray
.essa-none →  No Evidence        — Red

Size Variants

.essa-badge         →  Default inline (14px text)
.essa-badge-lg      →  Large inline (16px text)
.essa-pill          →  Pill format for cards

SVG Icons by Tier

Tier 1-2 (checkmark):  d="M5 8l2 2 4-4"
Tier 3   (info):       d="M8 5v4M8 11h.01"
Tier 4   (dash):       d="M6 8h4"

Data Sources

What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) — IES/NCEE systematic reviews of education research. Primary source for ESSA tier assignments. Updated quarterly.
ERIC Database — 1.6M+ education research records via IES API. Supplementary citations and meta-analyses.
Digital Promise / 1EdTech — Certified edtech product registries. Cross-referenced for digital tool evidence.

Badge assignments are refreshed when new WWC reviews are published. ThinkKits does not assign evidence tiers — we surface the tier ratings established by the What Works Clearinghouse.

Integration Notes for Session 1

To add evidence badges to platform.html tool recommendation cards:

Copy the CSS block marked with the comment borders into platform.html's <style> tag.
In each tool card's header or meta area, add the appropriate <span class="essa-badge essa-tN"> element.
Evidence tier data comes from the Neo4j Knowledge Graph — the EvidenceReview nodes linked to Intervention nodes have an essaTier property (1-4).
For API responses, add an evidenceTier field to recommendation endpoints.