Over the past decade, statisticians have developed methods to improve generalizations from nonrandom samples using propensity score methods. While these methods contribute to generalization research, their effectiveness is limited by small sample sizes. Small area estimation is a class of model-based methods that address the imprecision due to…

Randomized experiments are considered the gold standard for causal inference because they can provide unbiased estimates of treatment effects for the experimental participants. However, researchers and policymakers are often interested in using a specific experiment to inform decisions about other target populations. In education research,…

Although a large-scale experiment can provide an estimate of the average causal impact for a program, the sample of sites included in the experiment is often not drawn randomly from the inference population of interest. In this article, we provide a generalizability index that can be used to assess the degree of similarity between the sample of…

Phonotactics--constraints on the position and combination of speech sounds within syllables--are subject to statistical differences that gradiently affect speaker and listener behavior (e.g., Vitevitch & Luce, 1999). What statistical properties drive the acquisition of such constraints? Because they are naturally highly correlated, previous…

Recent methods to improve generalizations from nonrandom samples typically invoke assumptions such as the strong ignorability of sample selection, which is challenging to meet in practice. Although researchers acknowledge the difficulty in meeting this assumption, point estimates are still provided and used without considering alternative…

Currently, instruction pays little attention to the development of students' sampling variability reasoning in relation to statistical inference. In this paper, we briefly discuss the especially designed sampling variability learning experiences students aged about 15 engaged in as part of a research project. We examine assessment and…

The main result of an experiment is typically an estimate of the average treatment effect (ATE) and its standard error. In most experiments, the number of covariates that may be moderators is large. One way this issue is typically skirted is by interpreting the ATE as the average effect for "some" population. Cornfield and Tukey (1956)…

Generally educational research is grounded in the empirical traditions of the social sciences (commonly called quantitative and qualitative methods) and is as such distinguished from other forms of scholarship such as theoretical, conceptual or methodological essays, critiques of research traditions and practices and those studies grounded in the…