One purpose of education research is to develop and rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of programs for supporting students' learning and achievement. The Institute of Education Sciences has amplified that purpose (Shadish & Cook, 2009) and attempted to improve the methodological standards for conducting such work--primarily through the What…

Researchers who are interested in asking a number of questions about a particular phenomenon are increasingly looking to mixed methods as a useful research approach. In this case study, we discuss how mixed-methods research is situated in current debates about quantitative and qualitative methods. Then, we provide some reasons as to why we, and…

This case study presents an overview of the major challenges and tensions I encountered exploring the social-class experiences of university students from low-income backgrounds. The study presented here was a qualitative study using phenomenology and a critical theoretical lens to gain a depth of understanding of low-income university students'…

We review the effectiveness of first-year seminars based on the widely used criteria of first-year grades and the 1-year retention rate. Meta-analytic results indicate that first-year seminars have a small average effect on both first-year grades (k = 89, N = 52,406, d = 0.02) and the 1-year retention rate (k = 195, N = 169,666, d = 0.11). We…

Recent federal and state education policy has targeted community colleges as an affordable venue to increase postsecondary attainment. We examined a state program aimed at increasing community college enrollment, the Missouri A+ Schools Program, which provided eligible graduates from participating high schools the opportunity to earn a scholarship…

In Spain, the organisation of doctoral studies has been substantially modified to come into line with the changes introduced by the agenda of the Bologna process. These changes have been specified in a number of statements by European Ministers of Education, and have required alterations to Spanish doctoral regulations. The aim of these changes…

Many interesting research and design questions occur at the intersections of traditional disciplines, yet most coursework and research programs for undergraduate engineering students are focused on one discipline. This leads to underutilization of the potential in better preparing students through multidisciplinary projects. Identifying this…

This article introduces an alternative impact parameter for group-based RCTs with student mobility--the survivor average causal effect ("SACE")--that pertains to the subpopulation of original cohort students who would remain in their baseline study schools in either the treatment or control condition. The "SACE" parameter has a clear…

Regression discontinuity (RD) analysis is a rigorous nonexperimental approach that can be used to estimate program impacts in situations in which candidates are selected for treatment based on whether their value for a numeric rating exceeds a designated threshold or cut-point. Over the last two decades, the regression discontinuity approach has…

Institutional researchers (IRs) are often asked to conduct focus groups as an efficient way to address an institutional concern or problem. Typically, IR professionals depend on external consultants and specialists to conduct these group interviews for them; however, due to recent resource constraints (staffing, budgets), they are increasingly…

This article systematically reviews the research design and methodological characteristics of single-case experimental design (SCED) research published in peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and 2010. SCEDs provide researchers with a flexible and viable alternative to group designs with large sample sizes. However, methodological challenges have…

The purpose of this review is to synthesize the existing research on decodability as a text characteristic examining how reading decodable text impacts students' reading performance and growth. The results are organized into two sections based on the research designs of the studies: (1) studies that described student performance when reading texts…

Most investigators using single-case experimental designs use interobserver agreement (IOA) checks to enhance the credibility of the collected data, and they report the results of those assessments using percentage of agreement estimates. An alternative is to graph both observers' records of the measured behavior on the primary study graphs. Such…

Single-case research designs provide a rigorous research methodology for documenting experimental control. If single-case methods are to gain wider application, however, a need exists to define more clearly (a) the logic of single-case designs, (b) the process and decision rules for visual analysis, and (c) an accepted process for integrating…

This study explores the relation between argumentation in online discussions, cognitive elaboration, and individual knowledge acquisition. In a one-factorial experimental design with 48 participants we investigated the effect of an argumentative computer-supported collaboration script (with vs. without) on the formal quality of argumentation,…