Lecture Series
- Context Effects, Experiments, and Generalization in Educational Research
- Inside High Schools: Opportunities and Social Norms
- Context
Effects, Experiments, and Generalization in Educational Research
April 18th, 2006
5 – 7:30 pm (reception to follow)
Erickson Hall- KIVA
One perspective on how to improve American education stresses the adoption of educational methods that have been demonstrated to have causal effects on achievement. In this perspective, randomized experiments provide the most persuasive evidence for causal effects. Many educational researchers are skeptical of this perspective because it seems to ignore questions about the generalizability of findings from experiments. In particular, there appears to be little consideration of the principle that the context in which it is applied affects whether and how well an educational method may work. It is critically important to examine whether serious consideration of contextual effects and their impact on generalization from educational studies might be incorporated into paradigms for large scale quantitative research. In this spirit, we examine inference and generalization from two experimental designs that have been widely promulgated in educational research. We conclude by suggesting strategies for understanding limits to generalization from educational experiments.
The first of the lecture series will feature Professor Larry V. Hedges, from Northwestern University. Larry V. Hedges is the Board of Trustees Professor of Statistics and Policy Research and in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. He was previously the Stella M. Rowley Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology, Psychology, and Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago.
Larry V. Hedges’ research interests include the development of statistical methods for social research, the use of statistical concepts in social and cognitive theory, the demography of talent and academic achievement, and educational policy analysis. A major area of methodological work has been the development of statistical methods for combining evidence from multiple empirical research studies (meta-analysis) in the social, medical, and biological sciences. His work in psychology has focused on the development of statistical models for cognitive processes involved in estimation, categorization, and discrimination. His sociological work has largely concerned the social distribution of cognitive test scores, their changes over time and their relation to schooling and other social processes. His work on educational policy concerns the relation of school resources to educational outcomes such as academic achievement and the development of evidence-based social policy.
He is a member of the National Academy of Education, a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Psychological Association, and an elected member of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology. He was Editor of the Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, was Quantitative Methods Editor of Psychological Bulletin, was Associate Editor of the American Journal of Sociology, and served on the editorial boards of the Review of Educational Research and Psychological Bulletin. He has served on numerous professional boards and panels including several National Research Council committees, and was the chair of the technical advisory group of the US Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse. He is also on the technical advisory committees of both the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). His books include Statistical Methods for Meta analysis (with Ingram Olkin) and The Handbook of Research Synthesis (with Harris Cooper).
- Inside High Schools: Opportunities and Social Norms
April 25th, 2007
11am - 1:00pm
Erickson Room 252
Schools are a source of opportunity to learn, both through their curricular opportunities and social relationships. Yet, emerging evidence suggests that school contexts vary internally much more than was previously recognized—that is, academic opportunities and social norms are not uniform within a school, and these differences have important consequences. New representative data set show that both these academic and social processes within schools influence students’ attitudes and behaviors. These results will be discussed, along with the value of considering the particular match between student and context, methodological challenges to studying these questions, and implications for research strategies.
Chandra Muller
Dr. Muller’s current research is on the influence of family, community, education policy and health behaviors on adolescent academic achievement and post secondary education.
She is the Principal Investigator of the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement (AHAA) study. The AHAA study is collecting high school transcripts for Add Health Wave III respondents and, thus, will provide rich data on students' academic experiences, opportunities, and stratification.
Recent articles are "The Minimum Competency Exam Requirement, Teachers' and Students' Expectations and Academic Performance" Social Psychology of Education, 1998; "Gender Differences in Parent Involvement and Adolescents' Mathematics Achievement" Sociology of Education, 1998; Investing in Teaching and Learning: Dynamics of the Teacher-Student Relationship from Each Actor's Perspective" (with Susan Katz and L. Janelle Dance) in Urban Education, 1999; "Success and Diversity: The Transition Through First- Year Calculus in the University" (with Susan E. Moreno) American Journal of Education, 1999; "Leveling the Playing Field? Students' Educational Attainment and States' Performance Testing" (with Kathryn S. Schiller) in Sociology of Education, 2000; "External Examinations and Accountability, Educational Expectations, and High School Graduation." American Journal of Education, 2000; "The Role of Caring in the Teacher-Student Relationship for At-Risk Students" Sociological Inquiry, 2001; "Religious Involvement, Social Capital and Academic Achievement: Evidence from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988" (with Christopher G. Ellison), Sociological Focus, 2001.