| |
| |
Preface | |
| |
| |
| |
The Challenge for Educational Research | |
| |
| |
The Long Quest | |
| |
| |
The Quest Is Worldwide | |
| |
| |
What This Book Is About | |
| |
| |
What to Read Next | |
| |
| |
| |
The Importance of Theory | |
| |
| |
What Is Theory? | |
| |
| |
Theory in Education | |
| |
| |
Voucher Theory | |
| |
| |
What Kind of Theories? | |
| |
| |
What to Read Next | |
| |
| |
| |
Designing Research to Address Causal Questions | |
| |
| |
Conditions to Strive for in All Research | |
| |
| |
Making Causal Inferences | |
| |
| |
Past Approaches to Answering Causal Questions in Education | |
| |
| |
The Key Challenge of Causal Research | |
| |
| |
What to Read Next | |
| |
| |
| |
Investigator-Designed Randomized Experiments | |
| |
| |
Conducting Randomized Experiments | |
| |
| |
The Potential Outcomes Framework | |
| |
| |
An Example of a Two-Group Experiment | |
| |
| |
Analyzing Data from Randomized Experiments | |
| |
| |
The Better Your Research Design, the Simpler Your Data Analysis | |
| |
| |
Bias and Precision in the Estimation of Experimental Effects | |
| |
| |
What to Read Next | |
| |
| |
| |
Challenges in Designing, Implementing, and Learning from Randomized Experiments | |
| |
| |
Critical Decisions in the Design of Experiments | |
| |
| |
Defining the Treatment | |
| |
| |
Defining the Population from Which Participants Will Be Sampled | |
| |
| |
Deciding Which Outcomes to Measure | |
| |
| |
Deciding How Long to Track Participants | |
| |
| |
Threats to the Validity of Randomized Experiments | |
| |
| |
Contamination of the Treatment-Control Contrast | |
| |
| |
Cross-overs | |
| |
| |
Attrition from the Sample | |
| |
| |
Participation in an Experiment Itself Affects Participants' Behavior | |
| |
| |
Gaining Support for Conducting Randomized Experiments: Examples from India | |
| |
| |
Evaluating an Innovative Input Approach | |
| |
| |
Evaluating an Innovative Incentive Policy | |
| |
| |
What to Read Next | |
| |
| |
| |
Statistical Power and Sample Size | |
| |
| |
Statistical Power | |
| |
| |
Reviewing the Process of Statistical Inference | |
| |
| |
Defining Statistical Power | |
| |
| |
Factors Affecting Statistical Power | |
| |
| |
The Strengths and Limitations of Parametric Tests | |
| |
| |
The Benefits of Covariates | |
| |
| |
The Reliability of the Outcome Measure Matters | |
| |
| |
The Choice Between One-Tailed and Two-Tailed Tests | |
| |
| |
What to Read Next | |
| |
| |
| |
Experimental Research When Participants Are Clustered Within Intact Groups | |
| |
| |
Random-Intercepts Multilevel Model to Estimate Effect Size When Intact Groups Are Randomized to Experimental Conditions | |
| |
| |
Statistical Power When Intact Groups of Participants Are Randomized to Experimental Conditions | |
| |
| |
Statistical Power of the Cluster-Randomized Design and Intraclass Correlation | |
| |
| |
Fixed-Effects Multilevel Models to Estimate Effects Size When Intact Groups of Participants Are Randomized to Experimental Conditions | |
| |
| |
Specifying a Fixed-Effects Multilevel Model | |
| |
| |
Choosing Between Random-and Fixed-Effects Specifications | |
| |
| |
What to Read Next | |
| |
| |
| |
Using Natural Experiments to Provide "Arguably Exogenous" Treatment Variability | |
| |
| |
Natural- and Investigator-Designed Experiments: Similarities and Differences | |
| |
| |
Two Examples of Natural Experiments | |
| |
| |
The Vietnam-Era Draft Lottery | |
| |
| |
The Impact of an Offer of Financial Aid for College | |
| |
| |
Sources of Natural Experiments | |
| |
| |
Choosing the Width of the Analytic Window | |
| |
| |
Threats to Validity in Natural Experiments with a Discontinuity Design | |
| |
| |
Accounting for the Relationship Between the Outcome and the Forcing Variable in a Discontinuity Design | |
| |
| |
Actions by Participants Can Undermine Exogenous Assignment to Experimental Conditions in a Natural Experiment with a Discontinuity Design | |
| |
| |
What to Read Next | |
| |
| |
| |
Estimating Causal Effects Using a Regression-Discontinuity Approach | |
| |
| |
Maimonides' Rule and the Impact of Class Size on Student Achievement | |
| |
| |
A Simple First-Differences Analysis | |
| |
| |
A Difference-in-Differences Analysis | |
| |
| |
A Basic Regression-Discontinuity Analysis | |
| |
| |
Choosing an Appropriate Bandwidth | |
| |
| |
Generalizing the Relationship Between the Outcome and the Forcing Variable | |
| |
| |
Specification Checks Using Pseudo-Outcomes and Pseudo-Cut-Offs | |
| |
| |
Regression-Discontinuity Designs and Statistical Power | |
| |
| |
Additional Threats to Validity in a Regression-Discontinuity Design | |
| |
| |
What to Read Next | |
| |
| |
| |
Introducing Instrumental-Variables Estimation | |
| |
| |
Introducing Instrumental-Variables Estimation | |
| |
| |
Bias in the OLS Estimate of the Causal Effect of Education on Civic Engagement | |
| |
| |
Instrumental-Variable Estimation | |
| |
| |
Two Critical Assumptions That Underpin Instrumental-Variables Estimation | |
| |
| |
Alternative Ways of Obtaining the Instrumental-Variables Estimate | |
| |
| |
Obtaining an Instrumental-Variables Estimate by the Two-Stage Least-Squares Method | |
| |
| |
Obtaining an Instrumental-Variables Estimate by Simultaneous-Equations Estimation | |
| |
| |
Extensions of the Basic Instrumental-Variable Estimation Approach | |
| |
| |
Incorporating Exogenous Covariates into Instrumental-Variable Estimation | |
| |
| |
Incorporating Multiple Instruments into the First-Stage Model | |
| |
| |
Examining the Impact of Interactions Between the Endogenous Question Predictor and Exogenous Covariates in the Second-Stage Model | |
| |
| |
Choosing Appropriate Functional Forms for Outcome/Predictor Relationships in First- and Second-Stage Models | |
| |
| |
Finding and Defending Instruments | |
| |
| |
Proximity of Educational Institutions | |
| |
| |
Institutional Rules and Personal Characteristics | |
| |
| |
Deviations from Cohort Trends | |
| |
| |
The Search Continues | |
| |
| |
What to Read Next | |
| |
| |
| |
Using IVE to Recover the Treatment Effect in a Quasi-Experiment | |
| |
| |
The Notion of a "Quasi-Experiment" | |
| |
| |
Using IVE to Estimate the Causal Impact of a Treatment in a Quasi-Experiment | |
| |
| |
Further Insight into the IVE (LATE) Estimate, in the Context of Quasi-Experimental Data | |
| |
| |
Using IVE to Resolve "Fuzziness" in a Regression-Discontinuity Design | |
| |
| |
What to Read Next | |
| |
| |
| |
Dealing with Bias in Treatment Effects Estimated from Nonexperimental Data | |
| |
| |
Reducing Observed Bias by the Method of Stratification | |
| |
| |
Stratifying on a Single Covariate | |
| |
| |
Stratifying on Covariates | |
| |
| |
Reducing Observed Bias by Direct Control for Covariates Using Regression Analysis | |
| |
| |
Reducing Observed Bias Using a Propensity-Score Approach | |
| |
| |
Estimation of the Treatment Effect by Stratifying on Propensity Scores | |
| |
| |
Estimation of the Treatment Effect by Matching on Propensity Scores | |
| |
| |
Estimation of the Treatment Effect by Weighting by the Inverse of the Propensity Scores | |
| |
| |
A Return to the Substantive Question | |
| |
| |
What to Read Next | |
| |
| |
| |
Methodological Lessons from the Long Quest | |
| |
| |
Be Clear About Your Theory of Action | |
| |
| |
Learn About Culture, Rules, and Institutions in the Research Setting | |
| |
| |
Understand the Counterfactual | |
| |
| |
Always Worry About Selection Bias | |
| |
| |
Use Multiple Outcome Measures | |
| |
| |
Be on the Lookout for Longer-Term Effects | |
| |
| |
Develop a Plan for Examining Impacts on Subgroups | |
| |
| |
Interpret Your Research Results Correctly | |
| |
| |
Pay Attention to Anomalous Results | |
| |
| |
Recognize That Good Research Always Raises New Questions | |
| |
| |
What to Read Next | |
| |
| |
| |
Substantive Lessons and New Questions | |
| |
| |
| |
Lower the Cost of School Enrollment | |
| |
| |
Reduce Commuting Time | |
| |
| |
Reduce Out-of-Pocket Educational Costs | |
| |
| |
Reduce Opportunity Costs | |
| |
| |
| |
Change Children's Daily Experiences in School | |
| |
| |
More Books? | |
| |
| |
Smaller Classes? | |
| |
| |
Better Teaching? | |
| |
| |
| |
Improve Incentives | |
| |
| |
Improve Incentives for Teachers | |
| |
| |
Improve Incentives for Students | |
| |
| |
| |
Create More Schooling Options for Poor Children | |
| |
| |
New Private-School Options | |
| |
| |
New Public-School Options | |
| |
| |
Summing Up | |
| |
| |
Final Words | |
| |
| |
References | |
| |
| |
Index | |