This article provides a detailed discussion of the theory and practice of modern regression discontinuity (RD) analysis for estimating the effects of interventions or treatments. Part 1 briefly chronicles the history of RD analysis and summarizes its past applications. Part 2 explains how in theory an RD analysis can identify an average effect of…

Federal social programs are rarely evaluated to determine whether they are actually accomplishing their intended purposes. As part of its obligation to spend taxpayers' dollars wisely, Congress should mandate that experimental evaluations of every federal social program be conducted. The evaluations should be large-scale, multisite studies to…

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…

This article describes experiences with a qualitative research project into teachers' learning from innovating their own educational practices. Decades of New Public Management (NPM) in the Netherlands, with its top-down and businesslike approach to areas of public interest, obscured the learning and innovating capacity of teachers, teams, and…

This paper considers how the idea of "discipline" can best be conceptualised, both in general and particular terms. Much previous research has employed a strong essentialist approach, a model of disciplines which exaggerates the homogeneity of specific disciplinary features and accords disciplines generative powers which they rarely…

The 'Young People from a Public Care Background: Pathways to Education in Europe' project was funded by the European Commission under Framework Programme 7 and coordinated from the United Kingdom. It brought together a multidisciplinary team of social scientists from five European Union member states representing different welfare regime…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of action design research (ADR), a combination of action research and design science research, when conducting research where both practical relevance and academic rigor are required. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents ADR in action in order to motivate its use when…

This research project case is a recount of my personal experience in conducting a study on web-enhanced learning within Cambodian higher education. The research forms the basis of my PhD in Education, and the aim of the study is to examine the application of web-based technologies to support teaching and learning practices by using design-based…

This article describes the evolution of the conceptualization of the "problem of practice" dissertation in the new EdD Program at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Our definition and conceptualization of the professional practice dissertation is grounded in a review of relevant literature…

There are situations within middle school settings where measurements of students and teachers are used for high-stakes decisions. For example, student performance is used as an indicator of teacher quality or determines student eligibility for particular types of support services. Given the high-stakes nature of these types of assessments,…

Single-case designs are a class of research methods for evaluating treatment effects by measuring outcomes repeatedly over time while systematically introducing different condition (e.g., treatment and control) to the same individual. The designs are used across fields such as behavior analysis, clinical psychology, special education, and…

Leadership studies on principal succession show that new principals are required to address numerous challenges when adapting to a new school context. This paper, on a study that used a qualitative research design, reports on the professional and organisational socialisation of a new principal in a South African primary school during the first…

This article explores the viability of online crowdsourcing for creating matched-comparison groups. This exploratory study compares survey results from a randomized control group to survey results from a matched-comparison group created from Amazon.com's MTurk crowdsourcing service to determine their comparability. Study findings indicate…

Design-based implementation research offers the opportunity to rethink the relationships between intervention, research, and situation to better attune research and evaluation to the program development process. Using a heuristic called the intervention development curve, I describe the rough trajectory that programs typically follow as they…

In order to better assist practitioners and better serve persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their families, it is vital for professionals to systematically evaluate the existing body of literature and synthesize its scientific evidence, so that the efficacy of research can be translated to evidence-based practices (EBPs) (Wheeler,…