Selection bias can be the most important threat to internal validity in intervention research, but is often insufficiently recognized and controlled. The bias is illustrated in research on parental interventions (punishment, homework assistance); medical interventions (hospitalization); and psychological interventions for suicide risk, sex…

In the last few decades, the Language Policy Division of the Council of Europe restructured its efforts to help European citizens learn European languages for survival purposes to facilitate travel and work throughout Europe. With the idea of daily language use and plurilingual competence in mind, it published the Common European Framework of…

"Positive Action," a K-12 program, aims to promote character development, academic achievement, and social-emotional skills and to reduce disruptive and problem behavior. The program is based on the philosophy that you feel good about yourself when you think and do positive actions, and there is always a positive way to do everything.…

In its second decade of education reform and its third cycle of national ICT master plans, Thailand struggles to transform its aspirations into practice. This paper chronicles three decades of Thailand's ICT national plans and their relation to education reform. It also discusses the effect of global trends, Asian cultures, and Thai cultures on…

"Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition"[R] ("CIRC") is a comprehensive reading and writing program for students in grades 2 through 8. It includes story-related activities, direct instruction in reading comprehension, and integrated reading and language arts activities. Pairs of students (grouped either by or across…

Summative evaluations have often been undertaken to determine the impact of educational programs on student academic achievement employing a quasi-experimental design. The summative finding is expected to be less misleading if a statistical model is performed on a dataset including a sound matched sample as a control group. This is because an…

School-based body mass index (BMI) screening and parent notification programs have been recommended as a childhood overweight prevention strategy. However, there are little empirical data available to guide decision making about the acceptability and safety of programs. A pilot study was conducted using a quasiexperimental research design. In fall…

In this intact-groups, quasi-experimental study, 115 unemployed job seekers who utilized federally funded labour market interventions were compared on program usage (long- or short-term), personality, personal meaning, employability skills, job search length, and pain and suffering. Results did not find significant differences in program usage or…

Although many correctional education studies have identified various treatment programs as being effective for reducing recidivism, few, if any, of these studies appear to be above reproach when assessing their methodological vigor. This paper highlights the shortcomings in the current post-treatment quasi-experimental design primarily used to…

Nationally, there is continuing debate about appropriate methods for conducting educational evaluations. The U.S. Department of Education has placed a priority on "scientifically" based evaluation methods and has advocated a "gold standard" of randomized controlled experimentation. The priority suggests that randomized control methods are best,…

This study used a pretest-posttest, nonequivalent control group, quasi-experimental design to examine the effectiveness of a 12-week, metacognitive and planned happenstance career training course for Taiwanese college students. The treatment groups significantly increased their career competencies in metacognitive, cognitive, affective, and…

A tuition-free, vocational, English as a second language (ESL) program offered at a large community college suffers from high attrition as well as student dissatisfaction with curriculum. The purpose of this quasi-experimental, longitudinal study was to assess the effectiveness of a specific ESL curriculum supplement as an intervention to…

This study investigated the impact of a project-based graduate practicum experience that was facilitated online. The study investigated the effects of the online practicum experience by: (a) using quantitative data to assess the learning and professional growth of the practicum participants in comparison to a group of teachers that did not…

Presented as part of a symposium on evaluation on juvenile diversion programs, this brief paper describes several specific research procedures which have been utilized to help decide which type of diversion approach is best for specific types of clients. Procedures discussed are the regression discontinuity design, the tie-breaker design, and the…

This paper presents the causal comparative method, or ex post facto research design, as an alternative to classical experimental methods for establishing causal relationships between events and circumstances. A literature survey, conducted in an effort to define and describe the method is discussed. Following this is a presentation of the…