In the "individually randomized group treatment" (IRGT) experimental design, individuals are first randomly assigned to a treatment arm or a control arm, but then within each arm, are grouped together (e.g., within classrooms/schools, through shared case managers, in group therapy sessions, through shared doctors, etc.) to receive…

Multisite trials, in which individuals are randomly assigned to alternative treatment arms within sites, offer an excellent opportunity to estimate the cross-site average effect of treatment assignment (intent to treat or ITT) "and" the amount by which this impact varies across sites. Although both of these statistics are substantively…

When randomized experiments cannot be conducted in practice, propensity score (PS) techniques for matching treated and control units are frequently used for estimating causal treatment effects from observational data. Despite the popularity of PS techniques, they are not yet well studied for matching multilevel data where selection into treatment…

A lack of science and technology knowledge understanding of most rural people who had the highest education at elementary education level more than others level is unsuccessfully transferred appropriate technology knowledge for rural sustainable development. This study provides the measurement of the learning process by on Bloom's Taxonomy…

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…

The authors use a multilevel framework to introduce peer-based control as a motivational state that emerges in self-managing teams. The authors specifically describe how "peer-based rational control", which is defined as team members perceiving the distribution of economic rewards as dependent on input from teammates, extends and…

"t"-Tests are widely used by researchers to compare the average values of a numeric outcome between two groups. If there are doubts about the suitability of the data for the requirements of a "t"-test, most notably the distribution being non-normal, the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test may be used instead. However, although often…

Biological energy flow has been notoriously difficult to teach. Our approach to this topic relies on abiotic and biotic examples of the energy released by moving electrons in thermodynamically spontaneous reactions. A series of analogical model-building experiences was supported with common language and representations including manipulatives.…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to compare the perceived benefits of topical Scripture memorization (TSM) with the perceived benefits of extended Scripture memorization (ESM) to explore if one strategy fosters more perceived spiritual growth than the other. A baseline for the study is established by investigating the historical,…

Education research rarely lends itself to large scale experimental research and true randomization, leaving the researcher to quasi-experimental designs. The problem with quasi-experimental research is that underlying factors may impact group selection and lead to potentially biased results. One way to minimize the impact of non-randomization is…

This program evaluation of The Instant Word Notebook was conducted by two educators who created an instructional tool to teach and assess the most frequently occurring words in written text, commonly known as Instant Words. In an effort to increase the reading scores of first and second grade students, teachers were instructed to teach Instant…

This paper examines the estimation of two-stage clustered RCT designs in education research using the Neyman causal inference framework that underlies experiments. The key distinction between the considered causal models is whether potential treatment and control group outcomes are considered to be fixed for the study population (the…

THE FAILURE OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH TO CONTRIBUTE LARGE CONSISTENT BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS HAS BEEN DUE TO FIVE MAJOR FACTORS--(1) FAULTY EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN, (2) FAILURE TO CONSIDER ALL OF THE MAJOR INPUT ELEMENTS OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS, (3) FAILURE TO MAKE MEANINGFUL COMPARISONS (FOR EXAMPLE THE CONTROL GROUP IS NOT…

In 2006, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Early Learning Initiative (ELI) to improve the school readiness of Washington State's children through three main strategies: (1) development of high-quality, community-wide early learning initiatives in two communities; (2) enhancement of statewide systems that support early…

Selectivity bias arises in program evaluation when the treatment or control status of the subjects is related to unmeasured characteristics that themselves are related to the program outcome under study. This situation has the potential to lead to an incorrect estimation of the treatment effect when assignment to treatment and control groups is…