Thomas D. Cook, a professor of sociology, psychology, education, and social policy at Northwestern University, criticizes education researchers’ reluctance to perform randomized experiments. He points ...

Interpreting the research findings reported in the Chronicle and other journalistic sources that keep us up-to-date on the latest happenings in and knowledge about education is a challenge for ...

A new statistical tool can help researchers get meaningful results when a randomized experiment, considered the gold standard, is not possible. A new statistical tool can help researchers get ...

A new study suggests that traditional learning activities like making notes remain critical for students' reading ...

The Annals of Statistics, Vol. 42, No. 3 (June 2014), pp. 850-871 (22 pages) We propose a consistent estimator of sharp bounds on the variance of the difference-in-means estimator in completely ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 113, No. 27 (July 5, 2016), pp. 7383-7390 (8 pages) We provide a principled way for investigators to analyze ...

In 1997, the Mexican government launched a bold anti-poverty experiment in seven poor, rural states. The government’s idea was to give cash payments to mothers who met two key conditions: They had to ...

Dean Yang is a professor in the Department of Economics and the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Dean’s doctoral research was based on a natural experiment: variation in ...

If you want to help people start a business, it’s better to give them a loan than a handout. If you want to prevent the spread of HIV and unwanted pregnancies, teach people about safe sex and make ...

Festooned with mustard-yellow drapes and a dangling American flag, the room resembled a grange hall on bingo night. At center stage sat a wide vase containing oblong, plastic lotto balls, and over ...

The number-one job of a marketer is to invest budget wisely to drive sales. That inherently requires accurately measuring the performance of that spending. Yet most advertisers still rely on flawed ...