Thomas D. Cook

Professor of Sociology, Psychology, Education and Social Policy
Joan and Sarepta Harrison Chair in Ethics and Justice
Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research
Northwestern University
PhD, Communication Research, Stanford University, 1967
t-cook@northwestern.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Additional biographical information

2008 Workshops on Quasi-Experimental
   Design and Analysis in Education

Thomas Cook is interested in social science research methodology, program evaluation, whole school reform, and contextual factors that influence adolescent development, particularly for urban minorities.

Cook has written or edited ten books and published numerous articles and book chapters. He received the Myrdal Prize for Science from the Evaluation Research Society in 1982, the Donald Campbell Prize for Innovative Methodology from the Policy Sciences Organization in 1988, the Distinguished Scientist Award of Division 5 of the American Psychological Association in 1997 and the Sells Award for Lifetime Achievement, Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology in 2008. He was chair of the board of the Russell Sage Foundation from 2006 to 2008.  Cook was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000 and was inducted as the Margaret Mead Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science in 2003. He was part of the congressionally appointed committee evaluating Title I / No Child Left Behind from 2006 to 2008.

Selected Publications

On Theory of Method, especially concerning Social Experimentation and Causal Generalization:

Cook. T. D., and V. C. Wong. Empirical tests of the validity of the regression discontinuity design. Annales d'Economie et de Statistique (in press).

Matt, G. E., and T. D. Cook. 2009. Threats to the validity of research syntheses. Handbook of Research Synthesis, 2nd ed., eds. H. Cooper and L.V. Hedges. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Shadish, W. J., and T. D. Cook. 2009. The renaissance of experiments. Annual Review of Psychology 60:607-29.

Cook, T. D., W. J. Shadish, and V. C. Wong. 2008. Three conditions under which observational studies produce the same results as experiments. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 27(4): 724-50.

Cook, T. D., & V. C. Wong. 2008. Better quasi-experimental practice. In P. Alasuutari, J. Brannen & L. Bickman (Eds.), The Sage handbook of social research methods. London: Sage Publications. 134-165.

Cook, T. D., & Gorard, S. 2007. What counts and should count as evidence? In Evidence in education: linking research and policy. Paris: OECD.

Cook, T. D., & S. Gorard. 2007. Where does good evidence come from? International Journal of Research and Method in Education, 30(3): 307-323.

Cook, T. D. (2008). "Waiting for life to arrive": A history of the regression-discontinuity design in psychology, statistics and economics. Journal of Econometrics, 142(2): 636-654.

Cook, T. D. 2005. Emergent principles for the design, implementation and analysis of cluster-based experiments in social science. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, 599: 176-198.

Cook, T. D. 2004. Causal generalization: How Campbell and Cronbach influenced my theoretical thinking on this topic. In Evaluation Roots: Tracing Theorists Views and Influences, ed. M. C. Alkin. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.

Cook, T. D., and C. Groom. 2003. The methodological assumptions of social psychology: The mutual interdependence of substantive theory and method choice. In Handbook of Methods in Social Psychology, ed. C. Morf, A. Panter, and C. Sansone. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications.

Cook, T. D. 2002. Generalization in the social sciences. In Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, ed. N. Smelser and P. Baltes. Oxford: Elsevier.

Shadish, W. R., T. D. Cook, and D. T. Campbell. 2002. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.

Cook, T. D. 2000. Towards a practical theory of external validity. In Contributions to Research Design: Donald Campbell's Legacy, vol. 1, ed. L. Bickman. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage.

Cook, T. D. 2000. The false choice between theory-based evaluation and experimentation. New Directions in Evaluation: Challenges and Opportunities in Program Theory Evaluation 87: 27-34.

On Education — Whole School Reform and Evaluation in Education:

Steiner, P. M., A. Wroblewski, and T. D. Cook. 2009. Randomized experiments in educational research. In The Sage Handbook of Educational Evaluation, eds. K. Ryanand B. J. Cousins. London: Sage Publications.

Cook, T. D., & P.J. Hirschfield. 2008. Comer’s School Development Program in Chicago,Effects on Involvement with the Juvenile Justice System from the Late Elementary through the High School Years. American Educational Research Journal, 45(1): 38-67.

Wong, V. C., T. D. Cook, S. W. Barnett, & K. Jung. 2008. An effectiveness-based evaluation of five state pre-kindergarten programs. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 27(1): 122-154.

Cook, T. D. 2007. School-based management, A concept of modest entitivity with modest results. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education 20:129-45.

Cook, T. D. 2007. Randomized experiments in education: Assessing the objections to doing them. Economics of Innovation and New Technology 16(5) 331-355.

Cook, T. D., and D. Foray. 2007. Building the capacity to experiment in schools: A case study of the Institute of Educational Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education. Economics of Innovation and New Technology 16(5): 385-402.

Cook, T. D., and S. Gorard. 2007. What counts and should count as evidence? In Evidence in Education: Linking Research and Policy. Paris: OECD.

Cook, T. D., and V. C. Wong. 2007. The warrant for universal pre-K: Can several thin reeds make a strong policy boat? Social Policy Report XXI (3): 14-15.

Cook, T. D. 2006. Describing what is special about the role of experiments in contemporary educational research. Journal of Multisdisciplinary Evaluation. Vol. 6, November.

Cook, T. D. and V. Sinha. 2005. Randomized experiments in educational research. In Complementary Methods in Educational Research, eds. G. Camilli, P. Green, and P. B. Belmore. Washington, D.C.: American Educational Research Association.

Cook, T. D. 2003. Why have educational evaluators chosen not to do randomized Experiments? Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science 589: 114-49.

Cook, T. D., G. Haertel, B. Meanes, and V. Michalchik. 2003. The case for using randomized experiments. In Evaluating Educational Technology, eds. G. D. Haertel and B. Means. New York City: Teachers College Press.

Cook, T. D. 2002. Randomized experiments in educational policy research: A critical examination of the reasons the educational evaluation community has offered for not doing them.  Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 24(3): 175-99.

Cook, T. D. and M. R. Payne. 2002. Objecting to the objections to using random assignment in educational research. In Evidence Matters: Randomized Trials in Education Research, eds. F. Mosteller and R. F. Boruch. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.

Cook, T. D. 2001. Sciencephobia: Why education researchers reject randomized experiments. Education Next 1(3): 62-68.

Cook, T. D., H. D. Hunt, and R. F. Murphy. 2000. Comer's School Development Program in Chicago: A theory-based evaluation. American Educational Research Journal 37(2): 535-97.

Cook, T. D., F. Habib, M. Phillips, R. A. Settersten, S. C. Shagle and S. M. Degirmencioglu. 1999. Comer's School Development Program in Prince George's County: A theory-based evaluation. American Educational Research Journal 36(3): 543-97.

On Youth and Social Contexts:

Cook, T. D., Y. Deng, and E. Morgano. 2007. In press. Friendship influences during early adolescence: The special role of friends' grade point averages. Journal of Research in Adolescence.

Ghaziani, A., and T. D. Cook. 2005. Reducing HIV infections at circuit parties: From description to explanation and principles of intervention design.  Journal of the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care. 4(2): 32-46.

Cook, T. D. 2003. The rationale for studying multiple contexts simultaneously. Addiction 98 (supp 1): 151-55.

Cook, T. D. 2002. Community programs to promote youth development. (Author panel on community-led programs for youth.) Washington, D.C.:National Academy Press.

Cook, T. D., M. Herman, M. Phillips, and R. J. Setterson, Jr. 2002. Some ways in which neighborhoods, nuclear families, friendship groups, and schools jointly affect changes in early adolescent development. Child Development 73(4): 1283-309.

Fleming, J. E., T. D. Cook, and C. A. Stone. 2002. Interactive influences of perceived social contexts on the reading achievement of urban middle schoolers with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice 17(1): 47-64.

Cook, T. D., and F. F. Furstenberg, Jr. 2002. Explaining the transition to adulthood: Multidisciplinary, case study synthesis for Italy, Sweden, Germany, and the USA. Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science 580: 257-87.

Furstenberg, Jr., F. F., T. D. Cook, J. Eccles, G. H. Elder, and A. Sameroff. 1999. Managing to Make It: Urban Families in High-Risk Neighborhoods. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Cook, T. D., S. C. Shagle, and S. M. Degirmencioglu. 1997. Capturing social process for testing mediational models of neighborhood effects. In Neighborhood Poverty: Context and Consequences for Children, vol. II, ed. J. Brooks-Gunn, G. J. Duncan, and J. L. Aber. New York: Russell Sage Foundation