ERIC Number: EJ1190272
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Oct
Pages: 26
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1076-9986
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Design-Based Estimators for Average Treatment Effects for Multi-Armed RCTs
Schochet, Peter Z.
Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, v43 n5 p568-593 Oct 2018
Design-based methods have recently been developed as a way to analyze randomized controlled trial (RCT) data for designs with a single treatment and control group. This article builds on this framework to develop design-based estimators for evaluations with multiple research groups. Results are provided for a wide range of designs used in education research, including clustered and blocked designs. Because analysis in the multi-armed setting involves pairwise contrasts across the research groups, the key methodological question addressed is: How do the estimators for the two-group design need to be adjusted for multi-armed trials? The critical insight is that in multi-armed trials where the goal is to identify the most effective treatments, the samples for each pairwise contrast are representative of the full set of randomized units, not just of themselves. The implication is that variance terms need to be adjusted slightly under the finite-population framework that can reduce precision, and blocks need to be weighted to reflect the full randomized sample in the block or biases can result. An empirical example using data from a multi-armed education RCT demonstrates the issues.
Descriptors: Randomized Controlled Trials, Computation, Educational Research, Experimental Groups, Statistical Analysis, Outcome Measures, Program Effectiveness
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A