A Summer RCT Training Institute for Established Researchers

This training program prepared current education researchers to plan, design, conduct, and interpret randomized control trials (RCTs). This program built off of two former training programs: Proposal for an RCT Training Institute and RCT Training Institute.

Each year for 3 years, the program trained 30 practicing researchers (90 participants total) for 2 weeks in a residential summer training institute. Over the course of the 2 weeks, participants covered multiple topics relevant to running and analyzing RCTs. Participants received 22 units of group instruction (i.e., a combination of lecture, discussion, and in-class exercises) and engaged in an additional 13 units of group work. The goal of the group instruction units was to provide an overview of aspects of the design, planning, analysis, and interpretation of randomized trials in education. Although some of the material may be familiar to participants, this training honed in on the elements that are most relevant to RCTs and demonstrated how the material applies to RCTs. For example, participants learned how to apply what they may already know about multilevel models to RCTs in ways that would allow them to adapt to complex cases (e.g., unbalanced randomized block designs or three level experiments). The goal of the group work was to produce a realistic experience of planning a trial that incorporates realistic constraints of budget, human capital limitations within the research team, and limited time to prepare the proposal. During the group work units, approximately six participants with similar interests collaborate on a proposal, similar to one that would fall into an IES Goal 3, Efficacy and Replication, research project. Participants had access to the instructors and their assistants (e.g., advanced postdoctoral fellows) to assist during the group work as necessary. At the end of the 2 weeks, the groups presented their proposals to the full group for feedback.