Saxon Algebra is a full-year mathematics curriculum designed for 8th- and 9th-grade students. This WWC Study Report reviews a study of the effects of the Saxon Algebra curriculum on 8th-grade student achievements. Students using this curriculum were compared with students using a curriculum from the University of Chicago Mathematics Project (UCMP). This report summarizes the study and reviews its strengths and weaknesses.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Algebra, Mathematics Curriculum, Grade 8, Grade 9, Intervention, Control Groups
Research has demonstrated that the act of remembering can prompt temporary forgetting or inhibition of related contents in memory. This study extends the retrieval-induced forgetting effect to the recall of actions of an event. Based on a normative data study, high- and low-typicality actions of a mugging event were selected. The participants studied verified facts (high-typicality actions) and non-verified facts (low-typicality actions). They then practiced retrieving half of the high- or...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Memory, Recall (Psychology), Control Groups, Cues, Migueles, Malen, Garcia-Bajos,...
The central question of this study was whether there was a difference in mathematics achievement between students taught in an ICL classroom and those taught in a traditional classroom. The author was also interested in the experience students had while using the software. Thus, students in the ICL curriculum were surveyed about their attitudes towards using the computer lab for instruction. Teachers were surveyed about their opinions regarding the use of the ICL program and which instructional...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Achievement, Control Groups, Mathematics Instruction, Mathematics...
A review of the literature revealed that control (or placebo) vignettes are not used in numerous studies in all areas that employ vignette-based methodology, which is a serious methodological and theoretical flaw. The nature of this flaw and its methodological and theoretical importance is outlined in this paper, as well as procedures and a model for developing control vignettes. Two studies on the degree to which nurse professionals are perceived to be at fault when assaulted by patients are...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Females, Males, Nurses, Research Design, Research Methodology, Social...
By creating and analyzing matched samples, researchers can simplify their analyses to include fewer covariate variables, relying less on model assumptions, and thus generating results that may be easier to report and interpret. When two groups essentially "look" the same, it is easier to explore their differences and make comparisons based on group membership. The optimization approach, which is presented in this report, was born out of a need to produce matched samples of students...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Experimental Groups, Control Groups, Sampling, Research Methodology, Coding, Scores,...
Peters (1992) reports that students in the intervention and control groups showed gains on the Orleans-Hanna test during the course of the school year (that is, from pretest to posttest). However, the test score gains of the two groups did not differ significantly. There was no evidence that the Saxon Algebra curriculum (intervention) was more or less effective than the University of Chicago Mathematics Project curriculum (control). Sample sizes were not adequate to allow for sufficiently...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Achievement, Intervention, Scores, Control Groups, Algebra, Sample Size,...
Selectivity bias arises in program evaluation when the treatment or control status of the subjects is related to unmeasured characteristics that themselves are related to the program outcome under study. This situation has the potential to lead to an incorrect estimation of the treatment effect when assignment to treatment and control groups is not random. This paper adopts techniques that were recently developed in the econometric analysis of labor and markets and applies these techniques in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Evaluation Methods, Experimental Groups, Models, Program Evaluation,...
Many problems confront researchers who are developing appropriate methods to determine the effects of sexual abuse. Particularly serious problems arise when the victims are children who were abused while attending a day care center. Several methods for studying child sexual abuse have been recommended. This paper discusses problems researchers encountered in the course of developing an appropriate design for the investigation of a case involving the out-of-home sexual abuse of numerous...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Child Abuse, Control Groups, Day Care Centers, Identification, Research Design,...
In order to investigate the effect of reinforcing subject responses to Stanford-Binet test items, regardless of whether such responses were correct or not, one-half of a sample of Head Start children were administered a standard Stanford-Binet test and the other half were administered the same test with the modification that responses were occasionally rewarded with M&M candies. Six months later the children were tested again under the two conditons. The average intelligence quotients for...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Intelligence Quotient, Intelligence Tests, Positive Reinforcement,...
The one group posttest only evaluation model has been identified as a relatively inexpensive and useful model that can identify program components that are not being successful. The use of the model is discussed and illustrated through a hypothetical evaluation of a compensatory (Chapter 1) program. The one group posttest only evaluation model makes it possible to evaluate a compensatory program when there is no available comparison group and no pretest data are available. The design is...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Compensatory Education, Control Groups, Evaluation Methods, Models, Pretests...
This booklet contains questions and answers about random assignment in program evaluation and intervention research. The main purpose of program evaluation research in education is to determine whether programs help the students they are designed to serve and whether new ideas for education programs still under development are worthy of extension to a wider selection of schools and settings. Researchers use random assignment in impact studies to form two statistically equivalent groups of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Educational Research, Evaluation Methods, Experimental Groups,...
The purpose of the study was to test the hypothesis that students who watch their fingers in the beginning weeks of typewriting instruction will develop better techniques as shown on tests of speed and accuracy at the end of the school year than student who watch only their copy in accordance with the conventional teaching method. The major experimental and control groups consisted of 56 sophomore students matched individually by age, sex, grade average, and intelligence quotient. After the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Educational Research, Experimental Groups, Office Occupations...
THE FAILURE OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH TO CONTRIBUTE LARGE CONSISTENT BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS HAS BEEN DUE TO FIVE MAJOR FACTORS--(1) FAULTY EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN, (2) FAILURE TO CONSIDER ALL OF THE MAJOR INPUT ELEMENTS OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS, (3) FAILURE TO MAKE MEANINGFUL COMPARISONS (FOR EXAMPLE THE CONTROL GROUP IS NOT AN APPROPRIATE CONTROL FOR THE TREATMENT VARIABLE), (4) CONFOUNDING OF VARIABLES, (FOR EXAMPLE DEDUCTIVE APPROACH WITH CONCRETE MATERIALS AS OPPOSED...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Curriculum Research, Educational Research, Instructional Design,...
This paper outlines a possible approach to implementing the Social Entrepreneurship initiative, focused on building a body of research-proven program models/strategies, and scaling them up, so as to produce major progress in education, poverty reduction, crime prevention, and other areas. The paper summarizes the rationale for this approach, then offers concrete suggestions on how it might be implemented.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Poverty, Crime, Models, Crime Prevention, Entrepreneurship, Research Projects,...
Four experiments evaluated AMLA temporal version accuracy to measure relative luminosity in people with and without color blindness and, consequently, to provide the essential information to avoid poor figure-background combinations in any possible "specific screen-specific observer" pair. Experiment 1 showed that two very different apparatus, a sophisticated photometer and a common luxometer, provide equivalent measurements to compute: (1) screen gamma exponents and (2) relative...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Color, Experiments, Stimuli, Blindness, Evaluation, Control Groups, Visual...
PROCEDURES USED IN THE 2D YEAR TO SELECT FELLOWS IN ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATION FOR A PROGRAM INITIATED BY THE AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION WERE SIMILAR TO THOSE USED IN THE PROGRAM'S 1ST YEAR. THE PROCEDURES FOLLOWED THIS SEQUENCE--(1) PRESIDENTS OF MEMBER INSTITUTIONS NOMINATED PERSONS OF OUTSTANDING ADMINISTRATIVE PROMISE, (2) EACH INTERESTED NOMINEE SUBMITTED A DOSSIER FOR EVALUATION BY FOUR-MAN TEAMS COMPOSED OF COUNCIL MEMBERS, AND (3) TWO 30-MINUTE INTERVIEWS WERE CONDUCTED AT SIX REGIONAL...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Administration, Comparative Analysis, Control Groups, Fellowships, Internship...
THIS STUDY WAS AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF AN ENRICHMENT PROGRAM ON A SELECTED GROUP OF FIRST GRADERS. ITS PURPOSE WAS TO DETERMINE WHETHER CHILDREN EXPERIENCING THE EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS SHOWED GREATER GROWTH IN INTELLIGENCE AND ACHIEVEMENT AND GREATER USE OF FUNCTIONAL LANGUAGE THAN A CONTROL GROUP AT THE END OF ONE SCHOOL YEAR. AN ADDITIONAL OBJECTIVE WAS THE ANALYSIS OF ORAL LANGUAGE WITH REFERENCE TO STRUCTURAL PATTERN, VOCABULARY, AND FLUENCY. THE SUBJECTS WERE 141...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Compensatory Education, Control Groups, Disadvantaged, Enrichment Activities,...
This study was designed to answer two questions: (1) Is the systematic desensitization of test anxiety effective with secondary school students?; (2) Is relaxation per se as useful a technique as systematic desensitization? High test anxious secondary-school students were assigned to one of two experimental conditions, desensitization or relaxation, and met for 20 minutes daily for a period of 6 weeks. Their results were compared to those of a no treatment control group. It appeared that the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Anxiety, Control Groups, Experimental Groups, High School Students, Research...
The purpose of this study was to determine if the sequential method of teaching art skills (Brookes, 1986) could improve the success of intermediate grade school art students. Students were required to draw pictures of still life. A between groups pre-posttest crossover design was used to compare and evaluate the quality of perspective drawings before and after training. The results indicated significant improvement in the drawing skills of elementary students after they had been taught with...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Grade 6, Control Groups, Art Education, Pretests Posttests, Visual Perception, Snow,...
In September 2005, the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities (NRCLD) sponsored an invitation-only forum to look closely at applying responsiveness to intervention (RTI) to specific learning disabilities (SLD) determination decisions. Thus far, research and school-based practices have perceived RTI as a prevention model focused on accelerating students' academic progress. Little attention has been given to technical questions and issues concerning the identification, eligibility, and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academic Achievement, Learning Disabilities, Response to Intervention, Researchers,...
Findings from the first round of evaluation of an afterschool youth development program are presented. This program, the 4H Afterschool Activity Program, incorporated a specific curriculum of aggression reduction, the BrainPower program, into its ongoing activities, which cover a wide range from homework assistance to arts and crafts. The BrainPower curriculum is a systematic application of principles of attribution theory. The experimental group for this study consisted of 50 children, aged 7...
Topics: ERIC Archive, After School Programs, Aggression, Behavior Problems, Children, Control Groups,...
Listening, the most efficient means of learning in the early grades, is replaced by reading as an efficient method for learning after the seventh grade. For an investigation of the effectiveness with which college students may be taught listening, lesson plans were developed from a programed instruction book --Principles of Selective Listening-- that was written in 1968 under the direction of John W. Blythe. A sample of 132 students at East Texas University was drawn from students who were...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Auditory Evaluation, Comprehension, Control Groups, Experimental Teaching, Listening...
THIS STUDY ASSESSES THE EFFECTS OF ORTHOKINETIC SEGMENTS UPON THE MOTOR RESPONSES OF NORMAL MALE COLLEGE STUDENTS PERFORMING THE VERTICAL JUMP AND THE STANDING BROAD JUMP. THE VARIOUS PLACINGS OF THE ELASTIC AND INELASTIC FIELDS OF THE SEGMENTS UPON THE AGONIST AND ANTAGONIST THIGH MUSCLES OF STUDENTS WERE NOTED AND COMPARED WITH PERFORMANCE SCORES TO DETERMINE IF THE SEGMENTS FACILITATED, INHIBITED, OR FAILED TO SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECT PERFORMANCE. ORTHOKINETICS MAY ASSIST IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Experimental Groups, Kinesthetic Methods, Neurology, Physical...
Reinforcers contingent on response variability exert powerful and precise control over levels of variability, from stereotypy to stochasticity. This paper reviews how variability-contingent reinforcers interact with non-contingent, eliciting events to influence the variability of operant responses. Relationships to stimulus control, choice, acquisition of new responses, voluntary action, autism, and ADHD are discussed. (Contains 7 figures.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Behavior Modification, Reinforcement, Operant Conditioning, Attention Deficit...
This paper presents the causal comparative method, or ex post facto research design, as an alternative to classical experimental methods for establishing causal relationships between events and circumstances. A literature survey, conducted in an effort to define and describe the method is discussed. Following this is a presentation of the relationship between the correlation method and the causal comparative method. Both the strengths and weaknesses of the ex post facto research designs are...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Comparative Analysis, Control Groups, Correlation, Quasiexperimental Design,...
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Topics: Control Groups, High Schools, Statistical Data, Private Schools, Graduates, Institutional...
An analytical procedure that uses fall kindergarten assessment data to retroactively create equivalent comparison groups for longitudinal research and evaluation studies was designed and tested, and then analytically and empirically compared with random assignment to treatment. Students entering kindergarten in Hawaii are administered the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (Revised) and the Missouri Kindergarten Inventory of Developmental Skills. In 1990, 8,909 matched pairs of students (i.e.,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Comparative Testing, Control Groups, Experimental Groups, Followup Studies, Grade 3,...
Various methods have been suggested for the analysis of data collected in research settings where random assignment of subjects to groups has not occurred. For the purposes of this paper the set of allowable nonrandomized designs is made up of those research designs where data are collected for one or more groups of subjects at two or more time points on some measure of interest. Further, none of the groups need be a control group. The main purpose of the paper is to describe and report the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Comparative Analysis, Control Groups, Data Analysis, Data Collection, Evaluation...
A meta-analysis of 29 separate studies investigating pretest effects was conducted. Outcomes of the studies (achievement gains or attitude improvements) were computed as standardized differences between pretested and non-pretested groups. Eleven other variables were coded for each outcome. Initial descriptive statistics were indicative of differences between randomized and nonrandomized studies, so all further analyses were based on the 110 randomized group outcomes. For all outcomes, the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Achievement Gains, Attitude Change, Control Groups, Experimental Groups, Pretests...
A problem solving skill was investigated to provide direction for training strategies for a proposed personal problem solving training program. There were eight treatment groups utilized including video-tape modeling, audiotape modeling, social modeling through means of a written booklet, parallel treatments for each of these using social reinforcement of desirable verbal responses, and a control group designed to yield baseline data. There were nine criteria derived from three criterion...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Evaluation, Experimental Groups, Guidance, Models, Problem Solving,...
The concept of control is fundamental to comparative research. In research designs where randomization of observational units is not possible, control has been exercised statistically from a single covariate by a process of residualization. The alternative, known as subclassification on the propensity score, was developed primarily for biostatistical applications. The illustration included (comparing the physiological variables of 34 subjects from a home with a family history of hypertension...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Comparative Analysis, Control Groups, Psychological Studies, Research Design,...
This report describes a program for improving homework on-time completion with high school Fundamental Algebra students in an urban gifted and arts magnet high school. The Grade Control Chart was selected as a strategy for presenting students with a visual reminder of the value of timely completion of homework. The skills needed to produce this chart are in keeping with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Standards that call for the incorporation of statistical...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, High School Students, High Schools, Homework, Mathematics...
The purpose of the study was to determine whether higher shorthand speeds were achieved by high school students in a 1-year shorthand course through the use of Simplified Gregg Shorthand or through the use of Diamond Jubilee (DJ) Gregg Shorthand. The control group consisted of 75 students enrolled in Simplified Shorthand during the years 1957-1963, and the experimental group consisted of 45 students enrolled in DJ Shorthand during the years 1963-64 and 1964-65. A statistical test of differences...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Achievement Rating, Business Education, Comparative Analysis, Control Groups,...
The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of the marriage enrichment program based on the cognitive-behavioral approach on levels of marital adjustment of individuals. The experimental and control group of this research was totally composed of 30 individuals. A pre-test post-test research model with control group was used in this research. Marital Adjustment Scale as being pre-test and post-test was applied to the experimental and control groups. In order to test that, meaningful...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Experimental Groups, Control Groups, Enrichment Activities, Marriage, Instructional...
I Can Learn Algebra (ICL) is a standards-based math curriculum for use in grades 7 through 10 that was developed by New Orleans-based JRL Enterprises. ICL provides self-paced, interactive, computerized lessons and frequent assessments to track student progress. This Brief WWC Study Report reviews a study of the effects of ICL students' achievement on 8th grade mathematics. This report summarizes the study and reviews its strengths and weaknesses.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Grade 8, Grade 7, Academic Achievement, Mathematics Education, Grade 9, Grade 10,...
There was no statistically significant difference in student performance between students receiving the Expert Mathematician curriculum and those in the control groups. Baker reported negligible differences between the Expert Mathematician intervention and control groups. The outcome measure is sufficiently reliable, based on the author's report of its reliability, but the sample size was relatively small. In addition, the sampled participants and settings were restricted.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Gender Differences, Instructional Design, Control Groups, Instructional...
In this paper, the authors examine some of the ways that different types of non-equivalent comparison groups can be used to strengthen causal inferences based on regression discontinuity design (RDD). First, they consider a design that incorporates pre-test data on assignment scores and outcomes that were collected either before the treatment became available or before the practice of assigning treatments based on a cut-off score began. The idea is to use these pre-test data to establish a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Research, Research Design, Inferences, Scores, Comparative Testing, Data,...
Meta-analysis of studies with two groups and two measurement occasions must employ order-one effect size indices to represent study outcomes. Especially with non-random assignment, non-equivalent control group designs, a statistical analysis restricted to post-treatment scores can lead to severely biased conclusions. The 109 primary studies included in 4 meta-analyses were recovered, and their authors were contacted to request the raw data to calculate the order-one effect size indices. From...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Meta Analysis, Effect Size, Data Analysis, Statistical Analysis, Control Groups,...
In this study, the relationships between simple learning by accretion and various cognitive ability variables were explored. Computerized tests of five sources of individual differences were administered to a sample of 714 Air Force recruits, along with a trigram-English word paired-associate task, which was presented as a foreign language vocabulary learning task. Subjects were assigned at random to one of three groups: control, semantic elaboration, or interactive imagery. Subjects in the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Cognitive Ability, Computer Assisted Testing, Control Groups, Imagery, Individual...
The purpose of the program has been to provide tutoring and remedial services to assist nursing students to graduate and enter the labor force. During the fall 1968 semester, 239 freshmen of five City University of New York (CUNY) colleges received 1,801 hours of assistance from student tutors drawn from CUNY. During the spring 1969 semester, 142 freshmen received 2,042 hours of tutoring. A coordinator employed part-time in each of the five colleges trained and guided the student tutors....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Allied Health Occupations Education, Control Groups, Nursing, Nursing Education,...
In a public school setting administrators are frequently under local pressure to make a new project service available to all eligible children. However, comparable control groups for project evaluation are often absent, and although random assignment to treatment groups remains the most systematic method of providing controls, this is not often possible in the realities of operating a big-city school system. Several experimental designs, including time-series studies, are suggested as a means...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Conferences, Control Groups, Curriculum Research, Disadvantaged, Educational...
Despite its widespread use in evaluation data analysis, statistical testing has come under persistent criticism resulting in calls for its rethinking, and even possible elimination (Carver, 1978, 1993). Saxon and Boylan issue a call "to strengthen developmental education research and to make it more accessible" (2003, p. 2). Among the types of research they consider appropriate is control group methodology which often makes use of statistical tests. This paper responds to that...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Testing Programs, Program Evaluation, Data Analysis, Testing, Control Groups,...
THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROJECT WAS TO IDENTIFY KINDERGARTEN PUPILS WHO, WHEN COMPARED WITH OTHER CHILDREN OF THE SAME AGE AND SEX, EVIDENCED PROBLEMS IN THE AREA OF VISUAL PERCEPTION. TESTS USED TO MEASURE SUCH DEFICIENCIES WERE THE BENDER TEST AND THE FROSTIG TEST OF VISUAL PERCEPTION, SUB-TEST I AND III. MATCHED PAIRS WERE SELECTED FROM THE TOTAL GROUP SCREENED AND EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUPS ESTABLISHED. EMPHASIS IN THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP WAS PLACED UPON THE USE OF FROSTIG AND WINTERHAVEN...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Demonstration Programs, Experimental Groups, Kindergarten Children,...
Some of the controversy concerning the efficacy of psychotherapy or counseling has been resolved by recent evidence that studies reporting no effects had indiscriminately lumped together the high and low therapeutic conditions which are associated with successful and unsuccessful outcomes. The present study extends these findings to a group of essentially neurotic underachieving college freshmen. The 24 experimental subjects (Ss) who received group counseling showed greater improvement in grade...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Freshmen, Control Groups, Experimental Groups, Group Counseling,...
Researchers planning a randomized field trial to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention often face the following dilemma. They plan to recruit schools to participate in their study. The question is, "Should the researchers randomly assign individuals (either students or teachers, depending on the intervention) within schools to treatment conditions, or should all participating students at a given school be assigned to the same treatment condition?" That is, should...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Research Design, Intervention, Effect Size, Outcomes of Treatment, Statistical...
The Cooperative Extension faculty in Ohio established a correspondence course for new 4-H leaders. The course included topics designed to meet the most significant needs of the leaders. This study had as its objectives: (1) to evaluate the effectiveness of the course by determining whether knowledge about 4-H and desirable practices performed in 4-H clubs would differ between leaders who participated and those who didn't, (2) to explore relationships which may exist between the leaders'...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Agricultural Education, Control Groups, Correspondence Study, Course Objectives,...
Problems associated with the analysis of data collected using the Solomon Four Group Design are discussed. The design includes an experimental group and a control group that have been pretested and posttested, and an experimental and a control group that have been posttested only. A sample problem is approached in three different ways. First, the data are divided into two sets (those both pretested and posttested, and those posttested only) and analyzed using a simple t test. Second, the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Experimental Groups, Hypothesis Testing, Mathematical Models,...
This is a checklist of key items to get right when conducting a randomized controlled trial to evaluate an educational program or practice ("intervention"). It is intended as a practical resource for researchers and sponsors of research, describing items that are often critical to the success of a randomized controlled trial. A significant departure from any one of these items, we believe, may well lead to erroneous conclusions about whether the intervention is effective in the sample...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Research, Program Evaluation, Intervention, Scientific Methodology,...
A program was devised and presented to four classes of college freshmen who demonstrated a need for remedial English instruction. An experiment to ascertain relative merit of programmed and conventional classroom presentation was conducted. The program was divided into phonetic spelling, basic word usage, effective sentence construction, and basic and advanced paragraph construction. Each of six teachers administered the program to 25 experimental and 25 control students. Experimental and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Freshmen, Control Groups, English Instruction, Experimental Groups, Programed...
Since 1988 five evaluations of Federal demonstration programs in education have been implemented that had random-assignment designs to measure program impacts. The implementation of two of these evaluations, the evaluation of the School Dropout Demonstration Assistance Program and that of the Alternative Schools Random Assignment Program, are explored to lend support for several conclusions regarding random assignment designs. The first is that random assignment can be implemented in a variety...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Control Groups, Demonstration Programs, Dropout Programs, Evaluation Methods,...
