As the number of publicly funded early childhood education (ECE) programs increases, policymakers will need empirical evidence to justify the taxpayer investment. Such justification will require a stronger understanding of the essential components of an ECE program's design, as well as solid evidence on which components, or constellations of…

The impact of the Family Check-Up (FCU) on family-school engagement was tested in a randomized, controlled trial. Participants were primary caregivers of 321 children. Approximately 87% of families randomly assigned to the intervention agreed to participate and received the intervention. Caregivers in the FCU condition outperformed caregivers in…

Despite the knowledge that quality early childhood development programs, including those that target parental knowledge and behaviors, are essential for ameliorating the negative effects of early-life adversity, robust analyses of their implementation and impact in highly vulnerable settings are scarce. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted…

Objectives: To examine the impact of guided mindfulness practice on psychological distress and psychological capital (hope, optimism, resilience, and efficacy) in doctoral candidates. Participants: Recruitment of a convenience sample of doctoral candidates occurred in July 2015 and participants were randomly allocated to the control or…

The impact of the Family Check-Up (FCU) on family-school engagement was tested in a randomized, controlled trial. Participants were primary caregivers of 321 children. Approximately 87% of families randomly assigned to the intervention agreed to participate and received the intervention. Caregivers in the FCU condition outperformed caregivers in…

Objective: The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with college students. Participants: College students (aged 18-23) from a large Midwest US university who volunteered for a randomized controlled trial during the 2015 spring semester. Methods: College students were randomly assigned to an…

This paper describes a cluster-randomized trial of an after-school program intended to build mathematical identity among students in groups under-represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Populations under-represented in STEM include women, persons with disabilities, African Americans, and Latino/as (NSF, 2011). U.S.…

This study investigates the impact of an informal science outreach programme built around theories of identity formation and self-efficacy on middle school girls' science affinities. A lottery-based, randomised control trial was used to identify programme effects on four science affinity outcomes: science interests, efficacy with science, science…

Randomized control trials (RCTs) are commonly regarded as the 'gold standard' for evaluating educational interventions. While this experimental design is valuable in establishing causal relationships between the tested intervention and outcomes, reliance on statistical aggregation typically underplays the situated context in which interventions…

Research in education and developmental psychology indicates that behavioral engagement in learning is a critical predictor of children's academic success. In an effort to improve academic achievement, school administrators are continually in search of methods to increase behavioral engagement. Previous research has indicated that classroom-based…

To experiment with the possible privatisation of its primary education system, Liberia initiated the Partnership Schools of Liberia (PSL), which turned over the management of 93 public schools to eight private contractors. A randomised controlled trial (RCT) study was initiated comparing the PSL schools with matched public schools and the results…

The main purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of an activity with an educational electronic book (e-book) on language retention among children at risk for learning disabilities (LD) (seven weeks after the intervention). Two modes of the educational e-book were investigated: with and without metacognitive guidance. Seventy seven…

State child support programs secure financial support for children whose parents live apart. These programs establish paternity, set orders for the amounts parents are required to pay, and collect and distribute payments. An essential step in the process of establishing paternity and setting an order of support is delivering legal documents to the…

This study conducted a randomized trial to examine the efficacy of the Boys Town In-Home Family Services (IHFS) program for families of high-risk youth. Participants were recruited from a state helpline for families struggling with poor family functioning and child emotional or behavioral issues. Consent was obtained for 300 of which 152 were…

The present article provides a synthesis of the conceptual and statistical issues involved in using multisite randomized trials to learn about and from a distribution of heterogeneous program impacts across individuals and/or program sites. Learning "about" such a distribution involves estimating its mean value, detecting and quantifying…