Sample size and statistical power are important factors to consider when planning a research synthesis. Power analysis methods have been developed for fixed effect or random effects models, but until recently these methods were limited to simple data structures with a single, independent effect per study. Recent work has provided power…

This article reviews the origins and use of the terms quasi-experiment and natural experiment. It demonstrates how the terms conflate whether variation in the independent variable of interest falls short of random with whether researchers find, rather than intervene to create, that variation. Using the lens of assignment--the process driving…

In the past decade, moderated mediation analysis has been extensively and increasingly employed in social and behavioral sciences. With its widespread use, it is particularly important to ensure the moderated mediation analysis will not bring spurious results. Spurious effects have been studied in both mediation and moderation analysis, but this…

Collected Biannually since 1968, the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) represents the U.S. Department of Education's most substantial effort to understand data related to students' educational opportunities throughout K-12 schooling, particularly for historically marginalized student populations. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department…

Randomized controlled trials are not always feasible in educational research, so researchers must use alternative methods to study treatment effects. Propensity score matching is one such method for observational studies that has shown considerable growth in popularity since it was first introduced in the early 1980s. This paper outlines the…

The central roles of science in the field of remedial and special education are to (a) identify basic laws of nature and (b) apply those laws in the design of practices that achieve socially valued outcomes. The scientific process is designed to allow demonstration of specific (typically positive) outcomes, and to assist in the attribution of…

This introductory article describes how constructed response scoring is carried out, particularly the rater monitoring processes and illustrates three potential designs for conducting rater monitoring in an operational scoring project. The introduction also presents a framework for interpreting research conducted by those who study the constructed…

A rapidly growing number of algorithms are available to researchers who apply statistical or machine learning methods to answer social science research questions. The unique advantages and limitations of each algorithm are relatively well known, but it is not possible to know in advance which algorithm is best suited for the particular research…

Students' socioeconomic status (SES) is central to much research and policy deliberation on educational inequalities. However, the SES model is under severe stress for several reasons. SES is an ill-defined concept, unlike parental education or family income. SES measures are frequently based on proxy reports from students; these are generally…

The adolescent pregnancy rate in the United States is the highest among industrialized nations. It is important for professionals working with pregnant minors and adolescent mothers to understand the factors associated with adolescent pregnancy to avoid forming judgmental and negative attitudes towards this population. The purpose of this article…

It is an exhilarating and important time for conducting research on learning, with unprecedented quantities of data available. There is a danger, however, in thinking that with enough data, the numbers speak for themselves. In fact, with larger amounts of data, theory plays an ever-more critical role in analysis. In this introduction to the…

The author of this commentary argues that physical scientists are attempting to advance knowledge in the so-called hard sciences, whereas education researchers are laboring to increase knowledge and understanding in an "extremely hard" but softer domain. Drawing on the work of Popper and Dewey, this commentary highlights the relative…

Factor analysis is a versatile class of psychometric techniques used by researchers to provide insight into the psychological dimensions (factors) that may account for the relationships among variables in a given dataset. The primary goal of a factor analysis is to determine a more parsimonious set of variables (i.e., fewer than the number of…

This report was commissioned by the Council of Exceptional Children (CEC) Board of Directors and a workgroup comprising seven special education researchers (Bryan Cook, Chair; Virginia Buysse; Janette Klingner; Tim Landrum; Robin McWilliam; Melody Tankersley; and Dave Test) who developed, vetted, and piloted the new standards for determining…

Language attrition research has developed in several clearly delimited phases spanning, roughly, each of the three decades between 1982 and 2012 (see Kopke & Schmid 2004 for a more detailed overview and analysis). The first phase was an era of stocktaking, with a number of symposia, collected volumes and special issues of journals. All of…