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Education Research Center
Most Recent
Toks Fashola, PhD, Senior Research Fellow with Optimal Solutions Group, served as panel chair for a session at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, held in San Diego April 13-17. The title of the panel was “Sample Recruitment, Design Implementation, and Data Collection in RFT Designs: Districts and Schools as Partners.” Monica Leal Priddy, a Research Associate at Optimal, was a session participant.
Session abstract
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) recently sponsored a series of randomized field trials (RFTs) to provide rigorous analysis of the best interventions and educational methods for K through 12 students. RFTs can present particular challenges to researchers, including recruitment, data collection, and study design implementation. The panel discussion at the American Education Research Association conference engaged researchers in a discussion of these study challenges and the potential impact on policy, research, and practice.
Session participants
- Participant: Monica Leal Priddy, Research Associate, Optimal Solutions Group, LLC, “Recruitment Challenges, Considerations, and Best Practices for Recruitment Efforts” 
- Participant: Philip Gleason, Senior Fellow, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., “Selecting and Randomizing Student Samples in Randomized Field Trials (RFTs) in Schools”
- Participant: James J. Kemple, Executive Director, The Research Alliance for New York City Schools New York University, “Data Collection in the Context of RCTs”
- Participant: Mary E. Yakimowski, Director of Assessment, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut
- Discussant: Kent McQuire, Dean, College of Education, Temple University, Philadelphia
- Chair: Toks S. Fashola, Johns Hopkins University/Optimal Solutions Group, LLC
About
The Education Research Center (ERC) is comprised of an interdisciplinary group of researchers with expertise in special education, high school reform, teacher education and teacher performance. Our researchers have experience in performance measurement design, classroom observations, interviews and focus groups, quasi-experimental design, and randomized field trials. Our researchers work in teams to collect primary data, design and administer assessments, analyze data, and monitor and evaluate educational programs. Combining knowledge and experience from the fields of sociology, economics, public policy, statistics, international education and development, and educational psychology, Optimal’s ERC team is versatile and continually keeps up with the most innovative and efficient methodologies and technologies to provide ground breaking analyses to government, non-governmental organizations, and private sector clients.
The ERC uses the full range of research methodological techniques—including randomized field trials, classroom observations, structured and semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and surveys—when designing and implementing research studies. ERC researchers have presented and published government reports, refereed journal articles, and books. For instance, see Implementation of the Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities Program and Minding the Gap: Why Integrating High School with College Makes Sense and How to Do It.
The staff also utilize state of the art technology and analytic tools such as SAS and Stata statistics software packages to analyze both small and large datasets from secure servers that are compliant with the U.S. Department of Education security standards.
Optimal's ERC team has subject matter expertise in these areas:
- Academic achievement ;
- Charter school financing;
- Charter school performance;
- Early childhood development;
- Performance measurement design;
- Policy (e.g., No Child Left Behind);
- Summer learning;
- After school programs
- Special education; and
- Title I and IV compliance.
Selected ERC Projects:
For more information, e-mail us at info@optimalsolutionsgroup.com.
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