Short comparative interrupted times series (CITS) designs are increasingly being used in education research to assess the effectiveness of school-level interventions. These designs can be implemented relatively inexpensively, often drawing on publicly available data on aggregate school performance. However, the validity of this approach hinges on…

This guide for district and school leaders shows how to recognize opportunities to embed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) into planned policies or programs. Opportunistic RCTs can generate strong evidence for informing education decisions--with minimal added cost and disruption. The guide also outlines the key steps to conduct RCTs and responds…

This document is a companion guide to "A Descriptive Analysis of the Principal Workforce in Florida Schools" (Folsom, Osborne-Lampkin, & Herrington, in press). It describes the methods used to extract information from the Florida Department of Education database in order to conduct a descriptive analysis of the demographic…

This manual provides guidance and documentation for users of the longitudinal kindergarten-fourth grade (K-4) data file of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011). It mainly provides information specific to the fourth-grade round of data collection. The first chapter provides an overview of the…

This comprehensive volume offers a snapshot profile of every public school district in the United States serving 1,500 or more students and provides pertinent evaluative and demographic statistics necessary to evaluate educational programs nationwide. This edition includes profiles on 5,797 school districts in the United States, representing 90%…

This "What Works Clearinghouse Procedures and Standards Handbook (Version 3.0)" provides a detailed description of the standards and procedures of the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). The remaining chapters of this Handbook are organized to take the reader through the basic steps that the WWC uses to develop a review protocol, identify…

This report serves as a quick reference guide for elected officials to compare key education policies and data in their states to the rest of the nation. The first section highlights major state policies for all 50 states in both table and chart formats (see Summary Charts ). The second section provides key state data, such as per-student spending…

This document provides guidance about how to describe studies and report their findings in a way that is clear, complete, and transparent. This document does not include information about how studies are judged against What Works Clearinghouse evidence standards. For information about What Works Clearinghouse evidence standards, please refer to…

Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) provides international comparative data about students' reading achievement after four years of primary schooling, while also measuring trends over time, monitoring curricular implementation, and identifying promising instructional practices. Conducted on a regular 5-year cycle, PIRLS has…

Bullying is one type of violence that threatens a youth's well-being in schools and neighborhoods. The impacts of bullying are felt by individuals, families, schools, and society and may result in youths feeling powerless, intimidated, and humiliated by the aggressive acts of other youth(s). This document is designed as a tool to help…

This report compares three approaches to descriptive research, focusing on the kinds of descriptions developed and on the methods used to develop the descriptions. The main emphasis in all three approaches is on verbal data. In these approaches the importance of interpretation and its intuitive nature are emphasized. The three approaches, however,…

Data on which to base interinstitutional comparisons can be obtained directly from institutions or from a variety of secondary and tertiary sources such as national surveys, statistical publications, newsletters, directories, and organizations. Lists of these sources are included. (MSE)

Institutional comparison groups can be selected in several ways, depending on the comparison issue. The method chosen involves both technical and political considerations. (Author/MSE)

This technical report and user's guide is designed to provide researchers with an overview of the design and implementation of the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), as well as with information on how to access the PISA 2009 data. This information is meant to supplement that presented in Organization for Economic Cooperation…

The paper sets the stage for the effective and efficient use of computers in institutional research. The microcomputer and the mainframe computer are contrasted for those researchers who have a choice of where to process data. General computer use, specific microcomputer and mainframe computing guidelines, and an application utilizing both…