This article discusses the use of propensity scoring in experimental program evaluations to estimate impacts for subgroups defined by program features and participants' program experiences. The authors discuss estimation issues and provide specification tests. They also discuss the use of an overlooked data collection design--obtaining predictions…

Critically examines the research conducted by R. Weiss and M. Rein on broad-aim programs discussed in EA 500 479. (LN)

REPORTS ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE INITIAL TEACHING ALPHABET (I.T.A.) FOR INSTRUCTION IN BEGINNING READING SHOULD BE CONSIDERED WITH CAUTION. SINCE NO DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS USED IS AVAILABLE, EDUCATORS FAIL TO ASSESS RESULTS OBJECTIVELY AND ARE MISLED BY DRAMATIC GAINS WHICH REFER TO SPECIAL CONDITIONS. HAWTHORNE…

In a public school setting administrators are frequently under local pressure to make a new project service available to all eligible children. However, comparable control groups for project evaluation are often absent, and although random assignment to treatment groups remains the most systematic method of providing controls, this is not often…

This report provides information concerning alternative research methodologies and encourages the profession to engage in procedures which have greater benefit for the practice of counseling psychology than the traditional group experimental design. It urges interested members to gain further knowledge and provide suggestions for developing…

An experiment is reported on the effects of a moral education program based on cognitive-developmental theory, at the high school level. Students were pre-tested and post-tested on Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Scale. (Editor)

This chapter is published as the introduction to a six-chapter interim report on an experimental program at Southern Illinois University. 275 graduating high school seniors in the bottom one-third of their class were identified as high potential low achievers and admitted into the University to participate as experimental and control subjects in a…

Concludes that in addition to using multivariate methods to analyze their data, investigators need to begin thinking in terms of large-scale randomized controlled field trails (i.e., experiments). One of the challenges for the ethnographic educational researcher is to demonstrate the superiority of the anthropological field method over the more…

Interactive Research and Development on Teaching (IR&DT) is an alternative Research and Development (R&D) strategy that probes the questions, problems, and concerns of classroom teachers in a nonlinear manner. Each of the primary functions of traditional R&D--research, development, dissemination, and implementation--are performed…

Discusses the empirical analysis of experimental and non-experimental foreign language teaching methods and materials, based on the view of the teaching/learning process as a set of causative relationships among psychological, linguistic, and educational phenomena. (AM)

An experimenting society is one that vigorously tries out proposed solutions to recurrent problems and then tries other alternatives if evaluation shows that previous efforts are ineffective or harmful. Methods that social scientists could use if the experimenting society becomes a reality are explored. (SLD)

The program of systematic evaluation of variables associated with visual learning was initiated in 1965 to investigate the impact of variables linked to effective, efficient use of instructional visual materials. A prototype experimental package, containing a specific unit of cognitive content, learner achievement objectives, four individual…

This book examines in detail the experiment in educational performance contracting conducted by the United States Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) during the 1970-71 school year. Major objectives of the OEO project were to find out whether a private educational firm could teach educationally disadvantaged children to read and write better than…