RCT Training Institute

Well-executed randomized experiments provide the strongest evidence about causal effects of educational interventions, products, and services. Consequently, they have a crucial role to play in establishing a base of knowledge for the improvement and reform of American education. Yet the number of individuals with the knowledge and experience necessary to design, implement, analyze, and interpret randomized field experiments in education is surprisingly small. A training institute aimed at faculty and others employed in carrying out education research can play a crucial role in complementing the efforts of IES to build capacity within the education science community to carry out randomized field experiments.

To that end, the major goal of the project was to hold a summer research training institute on cluster-randomized designs during each year of the grant. The training institute was modeled after the 2008–2011 IES Training Institute on Cluster-Randomized Trials. Each of the training institutes had approximately 30 participants and took place over two weeks during the summer at Northwestern University.