Enhancing student math achievement through a digital wellbeing training for educators

Improving teaching is one approach to enhancing student educational achievement, but improving teacher effectiveness is challenging. In a preregistered randomized controlled trial of a digital wellbeing training with pK-12 school system employees (SSEs; n=827), assignment to the intervention predicted significant improvements in wellbeing. In teacher effects analyses (teacher n=234 to 238; student n=11,361 to 11,439), teacher assignment to the intervention predicted statistically significant, moderate magnitude student gains on end of year math standardized achievement equivalent one extra month of schooling. Small magnitude, non-significant gains were observed on reading assessments. Digital wellbeing training for SSEs is a scalable approach to addressing several educational system challenges, including the high rates of SSE distress and the urgent need to recover student learning losses from the COVID-19 pandemic.