An opportunistic experiment is a type of randomized controlled trial that studies the effects of a planned intervention or policy change with minimal added disruption and cost. This guide defines opportunistic experiments and provides examples, discusses issues to consider when identifying potential opportunistic experiments, and outlines the…

Experimental evaluations are increasingly common in the U.S. educational policy-research context. Often, in investigations of multifaceted interventions, researchers and policymakers alike are interested in not only "whether" a given intervention impacted an outcome but also "why". What "features" of the intervention…

As evidence-based reform becomes increasingly important in educational policy, it is becoming essential to understand how research design might contribute to reported effect sizes in experiments evaluating educational programs. The purpose of this study was to examine how methodological features such as types of publication, sample sizes, and…

In recent years, there has been a revival of interest in financial incentives to encourage students to attend school and to improve their academic achievement, graduation rates, and other outcomes. Conditional cash transfers programmes in developing countries, especially PROGRESA in Mexico, have found positive effects on attendance in large-scale…

The problems now confronting public education in the cities represent some of the major reasons for advocating the voucher system. This report identifies many of these problems, examines the concept of educational vouchers, and raises some policy and research issues that should be considered before such a system is tried. The author outlines a…

A description of a bilingual education program at the elementary school level spanning five years since its inception is presented in this report. The home-school language switch from English to French made by control and experimental classes involved total immersion in the French-taught curriculum. While focusing on the educational objectives of…