This paper examines the "ecological validity" of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted in 42 high schools to measure the impact of a content literacy program. This study of comparable schools implementing the same program in different contexts highlights characteristics that are often not attended to in rigorous effectiveness…

The Comparative Short Interrupted Time Series (C-SITS) design is a frequently employed quasi-experimental method, in which the pre- and post-intervention changes observed in the outcome levels of a treatment group is compared with those of a comparison group where the difference between the former and the latter is attributed to the treatment. The…

The purpose of this study is to study the performance of different methods (inverse probability weighting and estimation of informative bounds) to control for differential attrition by comparing the results of different methods using two datasets: an original dataset from Portland Public Schools (PPS) subject to high rates of differential…

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is a national network of public charter schools whose stated mission is to help underserved students enroll in and graduate from college. As of 2014-2015 the network included 162 elementary, middle, and high schools serving 59,495 students. Questions remain, however, about the ability of charter school…

Out-of-school factors can significantly impact students' readiness to learn and thrive in school. Research confirms that larger social structures and contexts beyond the school are critical, accounting for up to two-thirds of the variance in student achievement (Coleman et al., 1966; Rothstein, 2010; Phillips, Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Klebanov, &…

Student achievement in literacy has been a focal concern in the United States for many years. Improving teachers' knowledge and skill that leads to improved student achievement, particularly in the early grades, can place children on an improved trajectory that can have long-term impacts on life outcomes. Over the past decade, a large body of…

The goal of this research is to make sensitivity analysis accessible not only to empirical researchers but also to the various stakeholders for whom educational evaluations are conducted. To do this it derives anchors for the omitted variable (OV)-program participation association intrinsically, using the Love plot to present a wide range of…

Mentoring programs that provide guidance and support for disadvantaged youth have expanded rapidly during the past decade in the United States. Research suggests that students with teenage mentors exhibit positive youth development, including enhanced academic self-esteem and connectedness. By contrast, some studies showed that programs that offer…

This paper is the first summary of two studies and 10 years of evaluating the Milwaukee Parental Choice (voucher) Program (MPCP). This paper discusses school voucher evaluations in general terms and how these studies are carried out. The paper outlines the types of studies completed in "Study I" and "Study II" and the results…

When using time series accountability data to evaluate system-wide education policies, concurrent changes often pose threats to internal validity. The standard difference-in-differences (DID) method resorts to a non-equivalent comparison group whose average outcome change is due to such confounding. This strategy relies on the strong assumption…

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and regression discontinuity (RD) studies both provide estimates of causal effects. A major difference between the two is that RD only estimates local average treatment effects (LATE) near the cutoff point of the forcing variable. This has been cited as a drawback to RD designs (Cook & Wong, 2008).…

The tutoring component of the Investing in Innovations (i3) funded Milwaukee Community Literacy Project (MCLP) is based on the Reading Recovery program. Reading Recovery focuses on in-school tutoring with lesson plans written, and assessments analyzed, by the tutors themselves. The objective of this study is to measure the impact of the MCLP on…

In the world of early childhood care and education, the preparation of children to enter school successfully and perform well in their learning environments has become a subject of significant interest and concern (McLanahan, 2005). The term "school readiness" is generally used to describe the process of ensuring that children are…

Growing evidence suggests that teachers in developing countries often have weak or misaligned incentives for improving student outcomes. In response, policymakers and researchers have proposed performance pay as a way to improve student outcomes by tying concrete measures like achievement scores to teacher pay. While evidence from randomized…

Computers have taken an increasingly prominent role in education around the world in recent years in developed and developing countries alike. As developing country governments have turned their focus from increasing enrollment to improving the quality of education in their schools, many have made access to computers a key component to their…