Evidence matters : randomized trials in education research / Frederick Mosteller and Robert Boruch, editors.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Mosteller, Frederick, 1916-2006.

Boruch, Robert F.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Education--Research.

Education.

Physical Description:

viii, 231 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution Press, [2002]

Summary:

Evidence Matters explores the history and current status of research on practices in education, particularly the need for credible studies of the effects of education programs. The contributors to this volume direct particular attention to the use of randomized field trials, which are commonly used in other disciplines but rarely employed in education research. They also consider the use of other approaches to generating empirical evidence such as sample surveys, narrative studies, and exploratory research. In the first part of the book Judith Gueron discusses the difficulties in practice and their resolutions when randomization is used. Robert Boruch, Dorothy de Moya, and Brooke Snyder present many examples of evaluation in education and elsewhere using randomized field trials. David Cohen, Stephen Raudenbush, and Deborah Ball offer a historical view of progress in education since about 1960 and offer a research agenda. The remaining chapters examine various issues related to using randomized field trials. All of the authors understand that randomized trials are impossible at times but emphasize that they are more feasible and desirable than people usually recognize.

Maris Vinovskis comments on the history and role of the U.S. Department of Education in rigorous evaluation of federal programs. Thomas Cook and Monique Payne describe the high-quality description, survey methods and data, and achievement testing in education research. Gary Burtless asserts that randomized field trials can be designed to meet ethical standards while permitting policymakers to test new programs and new variations on old programs. Carol Weiss offers a brief history of community studies in the United States and suggests a variety of alternatives to randomization, including the use of qualitative information, to get at the rich structure of the activities and their outcomes. Generating better evidence for better education is not an easy task. Unless researchers and practitioners work at it, they will, in Walter Lippmann's words, "imperil the future by leaving great questions to be fought out between ignorant change on the one hand and ignorant opposition to change on the other." The contributors to this volume offer good advice on how to reduce ignorance and generate better evidence in the field of education.

Contents:

The politics of random assignment : implementing studies and impacting policy / Judith M. Gueron

The importance of randomized field trials for evaluating interventions in education and related areas / Robert Boruch, Dorothy de Moya, and Brooke Snyder

Resources, instruction, and research / David K. Cohen, Stephen W. Raudenbush, and Deborah Loewenberg Ball

Systematic development and rigorous program evaluation at the U.S. Department of Education / Maris A. Vinovskis

Objecting to the objections to using random assignment in educational research / Thomas D. Cook and Monique R. Payne

Randomized field trials for policy evaluation : why not in education? / Gary Burtless

What to do until the random assigner comes / Carol H. Weiss.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0815702043

0815702051

OCLC:

48241292