Educational intervention research addresses multiple barriers that under-sourced communities face in education. I test three methods to improve education program design and evaluation to develop programs that have substantial and lasting impacts on student outcomes. In my dissertation, I review current challenges to educational program evaluation…

In this systematic evaluation of intervention research for transition-age autistic youth, we examined quality indicators in 193 group and single-case design intervention studies, which tested effects on 1258 outcomes. Behaviorally based interventions were the most common intervention type. We found significant threats to internal validity for the…

Implementation analyses conducted as part of impact studies can help educators know whether a tested intervention is likely to be a good fit for their own settings. This guide can help researchers design and conduct these kinds of analyses. The guide provides steps and recommendations about ways to specify implementation research questions, assess…

A systematic review explored the creation and maintenance of community coalitions as effective for alcohol and other drug (AOD) prevention in adolescence. Community coalitions influence the implementation of effective and sustainable community-based prevention via infrastructure supporting development, delivery, and assessment of human service…

Self-regulated learning interventions influence students' learning outcomes in online and blended environments. A review of the literature about self-regulated learning strategies reveals both significant and non-significant effects on learning outcomes in online and blended environments. The aim of this study was to calculate the common effect…

This systematic literature review provides a comprehensive evaluation of the experimental intervention research being published from 2010 to 2020 within "Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals" (CDTEI). We critically evaluated studies found through a hand-search of CDTEI and identified patterns and trends across…

The use of singular methodologies has dominated emotional and behavioral disorder (EBD) intervention research, and by extension, the field has not deployed mixed-methods research (MMR). The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of MMR and demonstrate its utility for conducting EBD intervention research. The basic tenants and design…

Technology has been widely used to teach reading skills to students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the quality of research backing up this practice has not yet been fully investigated. The purpose of this review was to examine the quality of research on technology-aided reading interventions for students with ASD and summarize study…

Education decisionmakers need access to the best evidence about the effectiveness of education interventions, including practices, products, programs, and policies. It can be difficult, time consuming, and costly to access and draw conclusions from relevant studies about the effectiveness of interventions. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC)…

Extended reality (XR) such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) has been heralded as a particularly promising technology for autistic people. However, prior studies have centered around curing or ameliorating deficits and impairments and are typically conducted by non-disabled and non-autistic researchers. Using co-design and a…

Single-case comparative studies could help identify efficient instructional procedures for individuals with disabilities. However, previous literature reported inconsistent efficiency results if multiple comparisons were conducted, indicating that within-participant replication was uncommon. In this review, we examined single-case comparative…

Reading is a complex, uniquely human invention for communication through print. It is a critical ability for making progress in education. Students with reading difficulties, the most common learning disability, struggle with reading fluency and accuracy. Skilled reading is enabled by the coordination of a network of brain regions interconnected…

Methods to estimate the causal effects of interventions are increasingly used in clinical medicine, public policy and social science. Using observational data, researchers can obtain causal treatment effect estimates without the ethical risks and time constraints that typically burden randomized experiments. The three studies in this dissertation…

Physical activity (PA) promotion is an ideal intervention target for public health because it has the potential to help individuals feel better, sleep better, and perform daily tasks more easily, in addition to providing disease prevention benefits. There is strong evidence that individual-level theory-based behavioral interventions are effective…

Using an RD design provides statistically robust estimates while allowing researchers a different causal estimation tool to be used in educational environments where an RCT may not be feasible. Results from External Evaluation of the i3 Scale-Up of Reading Recovery show that impact estimates were remarkably similar between a randomized control…