IES is funding four research methods training programs that are holding workshops this summer. These workshops support the training of current education researchers to expand and upgrade their methodological skills. Participants include individuals located in colleges and universities, state and local education agencies, education-focused organizations, and companies that have developed and...
Restorative justice doesn’t seem to work
I’m amazed this is the first RCT for something so popular: Last week, the first randomized control trial study of “restorative justice” in a major urban district, Pittsburgh Public Schools, was published by the RAND Corporation. The results were curiously mixed. Suspensions went down in elementary but not middle schools. Teachers reported improved school safety, professional environment...
Teachers don’t find educational research relevant
Depressing but not surprising. From the Director of IES: For starters, many teachers view research as a search for bright shiny objects pushed by administrators without adequate attention to the needs and skills of teachers. Many told us they felt that their professional knowledge is all too often neglected in education research and, to use a common phrasing, that research was “done to them not...
IES proposes Standards for Excellence for ed research studies
I predict pre-registration will make some people very unhappy. Register Studies. Did the researcher execute the research and analysis activities as originally proposed in a recognized study registry? Did the registration describe key elements of the study protocol, including a limited number of primary outcomes? Are any deviations from those plans clearly documented and their rationale explained...
Genes explain as much variation in educational attainment as income
Over the past five years, Benjamin has been part of an international team of researchers identifying variations in the human genome that are associated with how many years of education people get. In 2013, after analyzing the DNA of 101,000 people, the team found just three of these genetic variants. In 2016, they identified 71 more after tripling the size of their study. Now, after scanning the...
Pre-K program advocates try to prevent research from being published
I had the opportunity to study under Lipsey when he was one of the instructors at the IES CRT Summer Institute. That he of all people had to deal with this is really depressing. Do not question the narrative that all educational spending and programs are double-plus good! We must think of the children! We believe that most people will agree that society has an obligation to prevent or ameliorate...
Preschool is bad for kids
Say that at small scale, you have really high-quality early childhood education — but at large scale, the education may not be that great, because of all the aforementioned difficulties in growing the program. It’s possible that the small project is better for kids than the various child-care arrangements that parents make now, and the large project is worse. And indeed, that’s what a new...
The null hypothesis in education
Depressing and probably true. In education, the null hypothesis is that nothing makes a long-term, scalable, replicable difference. That is: 1. Take any pedagogical innovation or educational intervention. 2. Subject it to a controlled experiment. 3. Evaluate the experiment’s outcome several years later. 4. If the experiment works, attempt to replicate the experiment in more situations. By...