Optimal sampling frameworks attempt to identify the most efficient sampling plans to achieve an adequate statistical power. Although such calculations are theoretical in nature, they are critical to the judicious and wise use of funding because they serve as important starting points that guide practical discussions around sampling tradeoffs and…

While the family is a critical determinant of educational achievement, methodological difficulties and the availability of data limit estimation of the family contribution in school effectiveness models. This study uses multilevel modeling to estimate the proportion of variation in student educational achievement between families, family-level…

Cluster randomized trials (CRTs) are commonly used to evaluate educational interventions, particularly their effectiveness. Recently there has been greater emphasis on using these trials to explore cost-effectiveness. However, methods for establishing the power of cluster randomized cost-effectiveness trials (CRCETs) are limited. This study…

Researchers face many choices when conducting large-scale multisite individually randomized control trials. One of the most common quantities of interest in multisite RCTs is the overall average effect. Even this quantity is non-trivial to define and estimate. The researcher can target the average effect across individuals or sites. Furthermore,…

Common methods of measuring discipline disproportionality can produce contradictory results and obscure base-rate information. In this paper, we show how using multilevel modeling to analyze discipline disparities resolves ambiguities inherent in traditional measures of disparities: relative rate ratios and risk differences. One previous study…

Professional development for teachers is regarded as one of the principal pathways through which we can understand and cultivate effective teaching and improve student outcomes. A critical component of studies that seek to improve teaching through professional development is the detailed assessment of the intermediate teacher development processes…

Pair programming is a form of collaborative learning in computer science that involves two students working together on a coding project. Previous research has identified mostly positive outcomes from this practice, such as course grades and the quality of the resulting code. Pair programming may also facilitate interactions that improve the…

To plan cluster-randomized trials with sufficient statistical power to detect intervention effects on student achievement, researchers need multilevel design parameters, including measures of between-classroom and between-school differences and the amounts of variance explained by covariates at the student, classroom, and school level. Previous…

We investigate the impact of a relatively brief cross-curricular intervention, Word Generation, on middle school students' development of taught academic vocabulary. Students (n = 8382) in forty-four middle schools in three urban districts were randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Treatment teachers implemented the program with…

The purpose of this replication study was to examine the impact of the Teacher Study Group (TSG) professional development in vocabulary on first-grade teachers' knowledge of vocabulary instruction and observed teaching practice, and on students' vocabulary knowledge. Sixty-two schools from 16 districts in four states were randomly assigned to…

This article examines the effects of one year of exposure to "Learning to Read in a Healing Classroom" (LRHC) on the reading and math skills of second- to fourth-grade children in the low-income and conflict-affected Democratic Republic of the Congo. LRHC consists of two primary components: teacher resource materials that infuse…