Research

Presentation and Combination of the Results of Multi-site Randomized Experiments in Education
Principal Investigator: Larry V. Hedges

Much of the work on representing the results of experiments via measures of effect size and the combination of these effect sizes across studies has focused on simple, single-site experiments. The recent interest in larger multi-site and group randomized experiments in education requires new methods. This project involves basic research on how to represent the results of multi-site randomized experiments and how to combine evidence from studies of this type with those from other multi-site randomized trials and from smaller studies. This project received funding from the Institute of Education Sciences.

The Social Distribution of Academic Achievement in America
Principal Investigator: Larry V. Hedges

In this project, Hedges and his colleagues seek to document the social distribution of academic achievement in the United States. By examining various achievement gaps (by gender, race, ethnicity, social class, etc.) in different ways, they come to understand how the social distribution of achievement has changed over the last few decades. A major part of this study evaluates patterns of between- and within-school variability of student achievement. They also examine whether different sources of evidence lead to the same conclusions; that is, they seek to triangulate whenever possible. Finally, the researchers study the—somewhat limited—longitudinal evidence, attempting to coordinate it with repeated cross-sectional evidence. They expect that combining such data may help us understand the emergence of differences in patterns of academic achievement between important population sub-groups. How large, for example, are achievement gaps when students enter school? How do these gaps grow over time? How does social context and school context affect the initial gaps and their growth over time? Do between-school differences grow over time, and what is associated with this growth? The Spencer Foundation has provided funding for the project.

Data Centers

Data Research and Development Center (DRDC)
Principal Investigators: Larry V. Hedges and Barbara Schneider

The DRDC’s ongoing research agenda is to develop and apply research methods for identifying educational interventions that can be scaled up without diminishing the effectiveness of these interventions. The work involves basic research on the design and analysis of studies for determining if an intervention has been scaled successfully, and providing technical assistance to similar studies at the Interagency Education Research Initiative (IERI), a collaboration between the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. IERI is supporting the center.

Chicago Census Research Data Center (Chicago RDC)
Northwestern University Contact: Bruce Spencer

The Chicago RDC provides an opportunity for researchers to engage in approved projects using microdata from the Census Bureau. The center is a collaboration between the Census Bureau and a consortium consisting of Argonne National Laboratory, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois. The center is also supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.