The purpose of this dissertation is to develop principles and strategies for and identify limitations of multisite cluster randomized trials in the context of partially and fully nested designs. In the first study, I develop principles of estimation, sampling variability, and inference for studies that leverage multisite designs within the context…

Single-case research designs (SCRDs) are rigorous methods used to investigate the effects of interventions on socially important outcomes. A hallmark of SCRDs is repeated measurement of observable behavior presented in time-series graphs. The construction of time-series graphs can inflate Type I or Type II errors made via visual analysis. In the…

This systematic literature review critically evaluates 14 empirical studies published over a 14 years span (2006-2019) to answer questions about the models and the effects of transformational school leadership on student academic achievement. The analysis of the related literature utilized vote counting and narrative synthesis to delineate the…

Comprehensive evaluation of treatment effects is aided by considerations for moderated effects. In educational research, the combination of natural hierarchical structures and prevalence of group-administered or shared facilitator treatments often produces three-level partially nested data structures. Literature details planning strategies for a…

Scholarly efforts to identify core design features for effective teacher professional development have grown rapidly in the last 25 years. Many concise lists of design principles have emerged, most of which converge on a consensus of 5-7 presumably 'effective' features (e.g. collaborative tasks, active learning, focus on content). The…

Sample size and statistical power are important factors to consider when planning a research synthesis. Power analysis methods have been developed for fixed effect or random effects models, but until recently these methods were limited to simple data structures with a single, independent effect per study. Recent work has provided power…

This article presents marketing educators with an approach to teaching an undergraduate services marketing class with a unique emphasis on service design. As part of the class, the content on services marketing fundamentals is blended with a detailed discussion of service design. Additionally, hands-on experience with the service design process is…

A primary goal of educational settings in the United States is to produce competent writers. However, most students do not receive adequate instruction and practice beyond grade three. Furthermore, only 29% of high school graduates without disabilities, and 5% with disabilities exit with proficient writing skills (U.S. Department of Education,…

The authors of this article present arguments for why and how qualitative research should be used in economic education. These arguments recognize the nature of economics as a discipline and economics educators' current expertise and preferences. The authors have five goals: (i) clarifying how and why the use of qualitative research in economic…

The clustered observational study (COS) design is the observational study counterpart to the clustered randomized trial. In a COS, a treatment is assigned to intact groups, and all units within the group are exposed to the treatment. However, the treatment is non-randomly assigned. COSs are common in both education and health services research. In…

Experimental designs in the social sciences have received increasing attention due to their power to produce causal inferences. Nevertheless, experimental research faces limitations, including limited external validity and unrealistic treatments. We propose combining qualitative fieldwork and experimental design iteratively--moving back-and-forth…

Balancing coverage of qualitative, quantitative and combined methods, "Educational Research" offers a truly inclusive and integrated overview of the processes involved in planning, conducting and evaluating research. It first examines the general steps in the research process and then details the procedures for conducting specific types…

Industry-funded research can prevent academic freedom from thriving at universities. It can also lead to misleading research that harms consumers. This book chapter focuses on how corporations sometimes use methods that contribute to the corruption of science and includes descriptions of several cases that occurred at universities. Some of the…

Discrete Choice Experiments (DCEs) are widely used in behavioral sciences to examine how humans value attributes of a technology, how those values drive decisions, and how they make trade-offs. The method has increasingly been used to inform technologies and interventions for addressing critical issues (e.g. disease and hunger). Different formats…

The study of infant gaze has long been a key tool for understanding the developing mind. However, labor-intensive data collection and processing limit the speed at which this understanding can be advanced. Here, we demonstrate an asynchronous workflow for conducting violation-of-expectation (VoE) experiments, which is fully "hands-off"…