Introduction: Missing data are bound to occur in education intervention research. Reasons vary but always have the consequence of reducing sample sizes and can, under certain conditions, seriously bias estimated intervention effects. A wide array of methods have been developed for handling missing data (Enders, 2023). Whereas older approaches…

Cluster randomized trials (CRTs) are commonly used to evaluate the causal effects of educational interventions, where the entire clusters (e.g., schools) are randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. This study introduces statistical methods for designing and analyzing two-level (e.g., students nested within schools) and three-level…

Comparison studies conducted to determine which instructional interventions are most efficient for teaching discrete behaviors to individuals with disabilities are potentially valuable, although some threats to internal validity may be more likely in these studies. Studies included in this review typically met common internal validity standards,…

Over the past 15 years, we have seen an increase in the use of cluster randomized trials (CRTs) to test the efficacy of educational interventions. These studies are often designed with the goal of determining whether a program works, or answering the what works question. Recently, the goals of these studies expanded to include for whom and under…

Given the importance of social integration and participation in inclusive settings for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the purpose of this systematic review was to examine instructional outcomes and participant, teacher, group, and instructional characteristics that may be pertinent to successful group instruction for young…

Inappropriate behavior on school buses is a safety issue that concerns students, parents, and educators. There is potential for traffic-related injury, and the limited adult supervision on school buses often facilitates bullying and other infractions. This review identified peer-reviewed articles and dissertations evaluating behavioral…

Objective: Search strategies are essential for the adequate retrieval of studies in a systematic review (SR). Our objective was to identify problems in the design and reporting of search strategies in a sample of new Cochrane SRs first published in The Cochrane Library in 2015. Study design and setting: We took a random sample of 70 new Cochrane…

The scientific rigor of education research has improved dramatically since the year 2000. Much of the credit for this improvement is deserved by Institute of Education Sciences (IES) policies that helped create a demand for rigorous research; increased human capital capacity to carry out such work; provided funding for the work itself; and…

David Berliner argued in 2002 that educational research is the hardest science of all. His arguments addressed the complexity that context plays in educational settings and the difficulties of applying research designs that were largely developed and refined in the natural sciences arena to fields of human behavior. In this article, it is argued…

The scientific rigor of education research has improved dramatically since the year 2000. Much of the credit for this improvement is deserved by Institute of Education Sciences (IES) policies that helped create a demand for rigorous research; increased human capital capacity to carry out such work; provided funding for the work itself; and…

Background: The use of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in education has increased significantly over the last 15 years. However, their use has also been subject to sustained and rather trenchant criticism from significant sections of the education research community. Key criticisms have included the claims that: it is not possible to undertake…

School practitioners and educators are frequently challenged by the diverse and pervasive academic and behavioral needs of children at risk for and with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This paper examines the outcome literature on self-regulated learning (SRL) interventions for youth with ADHD by systematically reviewing the key…

Conducting intervention studies with homeless populations can be difficult, particularly in terms of retaining participants across multiple sessions and locating them for subsequent follow-up assessments. Homeless youth are even more challenging to engage due to substance use, mental health problems, wariness of authority figures, and frequent…

Purpose: Single-case experimental designs are widely used to study interventions for communication disorders. Traditionally, single-case experiments follow a response-guided approach, where design decisions during the study are based on participants' observed patterns of behavior. However, this approach has been criticized for its high rate of…

This report examines the range of factors that might influence the decision by social care professionals on the use of boarding schools as an intervention option for Children in Need (CiN) or children on a Child Protection Plan (CPP). Attempts to conduct a randomised controlled trial (RCT) failed to recruit participants. Initially, failure to…