Low Cost Experiments to Support Local School District Decisions

At the time of this study, evidence-based practice in education was increasing pressure on educators to enact reforms based on research findings. However, there was little research that measured the effectiveness of many instructional practices. Additionally, what evidence there was often did not consider the specific circumstances faced by education decision-makers in their schools or districts. In this project, the researchers planned to develop and test the feasibility of an approach to help school districts design and carry out their own experimental studies to guide their decision-making.

The researchers aimed to carry out this project in collaboration with a set of school districts. They planned to develop and refine a model to help school districts carry out randomized experiments of education interventions as a guide for decision-making. In phase 1, the researchers proposed to conduct 3 experiments with their district partners followed by 5 in phase 2 and 10 in phase 3. The research team also aimed to study whether the costs of these experiments were reasonable in relation to the cost implications of the school improvement decisions they were supposed to inform. A group of external evaluators was to provide feedback about the process and to help refine the model based on these experiences. The researchers' goal was to determine whether helping school districts develop and incorporate low-cost, scientifically sound randomized experiments into their program planning and decision-making was a workable, economical model for providing technical support for school district improvement efforts.