The regression discontinuity design (RDD) has the potential to yield findings with causal validity approaching that of the randomized controlled trial (RCT). However, Schochet (2008a) estimated that, on average, an RDD study of an education intervention would need to include three to four times as many schools or students as an RCT to produce…

This paper provides practical guidance for researchers who are designing and analyzing studies that randomize schools--which comprise three levels of clustering (students in classrooms in schools)--to measure intervention effects on student academic outcomes when information on the middle level (classrooms) is missing. This situation arises…

Communities That Care (CTC) is a prevention system designed to reduce adolescent substance use and delinquency through the selection of effective preventive interventions tailored to a community's specific profile of risk and protection. A community-randomized trial of CTC, the Community Youth Development Study, is currently being conducted in 24…

Virtual Comparison Groups (VCG) were developed by the Northwest Evaluation Association as an alternative to conventional controlled experiments for social science researchers working in the field of education. The VCG is generally a group of up to 51 students who are matched, based on key characteristics of the student and school, to a single…

By the spring of 2000, forty states had begun using student test scores to rate school performance. Twenty states have gone a step further and are attaching explicit monetary rewards or sanctions to a school's test performance. In this paper, the authors focus on accountability programs in which states measure the effectiveness of individual…