Methods matter : improving causal inference in educational and social science research / Richard J. Murnane, John B. Willett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Murnane, Richard J.

Contributor:

Willett, John B.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Education--Research--Methodology.

Education.

Quantitative research.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (414 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Educational policy-makers around the world constantly make decisions about how to use scarce resources to improve the education of children. Unfortunately, their decisions are rarely informed by evidence on the consequences of these initiatives in other settings. Nor are decisions typically accompanied by well-formulated plans to evaluate their causal impacts. As a result, knowledge about what works in different situations has been very slow to accumulate. Over the last several decades, advances in research methodology, administrative record keeping, and statistical software have dramatically

Contents:

Contents; Preface; 1 The Challenge for Educational Research; 2 The Importance of Theory; 3 Designing Research to Address Causal Questions; 4 Investigator-Designed Randomized Experiments; 5 Challenges in Designing, Implementing, and Learning from Randomized Experiments; 6 Statistical Power and Sample Size; 7 Experimental Research When Participants Are Clustered Within Intact Groups; 8 Using Natural Experiments to Provide ""Arguably Exogenous"" Treatment Variability; 9 Estimating Causal Effects Using a Regression-Discontinuity Approach; 10 Introducing Instrumental-Variables Estimation

11 Using IVE to Recover the Treatment Effect in a Quasi-Experiment12 Dealing with Bias in Treatment Effects Estimated from Nonexperimental Data; 13 Methodological Lessons from the Long Quest; 14 Substantive Lessons and New Questions; References; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-19-989015-3

1-282-73620-5

9786612736209

0-19-978031-5

OCLC:

664243272