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Development Grant Awarded to Empirical Education
May 22, 2008
The US Department of Education awarded Empirical Education a research grant to develop web-based software tools to support school administrators in conducting their own program evaluations. The two-and-a-half year project was awarded through the Small Business Innovative Research program administered by the Institute of Education Sciences. The proposal received excellent reviews in this competitive program. One reviewer remarked: “This software system is in the spirit of NCLB and IES to make curriculum, professional development, and other policy decisions based on rigorous research. This would be an improvement over other systems that districts and schools use that mostly generate tables.” While current data-driven decision making systems provide tabular information or comparisons in terms of bar graphs, the software to be developed—an enhancement of our current MeasureResults™ program—helps school personnel create appropriate research designs following a decision process. It then provides access to a web-based service that uses sophisticated statistical software to test whether there is a difference in the results for a new program compared to the school‘s existing programs. The reviewer added that the web-based system instantiates a “very good idea to provide [a] user-friendly and cost-effective software system to districts and schools to insert data for evaluating their own programs.” Another reviewer agreed, noting that: “The theory behind the tool is sound and would provide analyses appropriate to the questions being asked.” The reviewer also remarked that “...this would be a highly valuable tool. It is likely that the tool would be widely disseminated and utilized.” The company will begin deploying early versions of the software in school systems this coming fall.
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Empirical Education Joins the What Works Clearinghouse Research Team
January 29, 2008
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. has subcontracted with Empirical Education to serve as one of the research partners on the new What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) team. This week, Empirical research staff joined a seminar to talk through the latest policies and criteria for judging the quality and rigor of effectiveness research.
Last summer, the Department of Education granted leadership of the WWC to Mathematica, (formerly led by AIR), which put together a team consisting of Empirical, RAND, SRI, and a number of other research organizations. This round of work is expected to have a greater emphasis on outreach to schools, industry, and other stakeholders.
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Maui Schools Sign Subscription Agreement for Empirical Education Research Services
December 17, 2007
Empirical Education will be providing research services to the Maui School District through an innovative subscription arrangement for MeasureResults™, an Internet-based research and consulting offering. The initial application of this service will be investigations of the longer term impact of the Cognitive Tutor program that was implemented under a Math and Science Partnership program grant.
The company’s MeasureResults service is a response to the ever increasing demands on school systems to validate their program and spending decisions based on the analysis of solid data. Most districts do not have the staff and facilities to set up data and run complex statistical analyses. In Maui, the service will take advantage of the sophisticated data warehousing capabilities being put in place statewide. MeasureResults is designed to simplify the technical and logistical steps of conducting experiments by building powerful and verified analytical techniques into an uncomplicated framework. The offering includes consultative services on research design and web-based interfaces to gather data, automate analysis, and generate reports. MeasureResults is bundled with technical support that includes review of all analyses and reports by trained statisticians.
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REL West Calls on Empirical for Assistance with Experiment on New Economics Program
September 6, 2007
WestEd, which holds the contract for the Regional Education Laboratory contract in the western region (REL West) has contracted with Empirical Education for the operations of a large randomized experiment involving over 75 high school economics teachers throughout California and Arizona. With a September 2007 start, the project has called for very rapid start up by Empirical Education staff including delivery and processing approximately 40,000 student tests and surveys, acquiring data from over 50 school districts and conducting web-based surveys with 84 teachers. The Problem-Based Economics program, developed by Buck Institute for Education is being tested in the context of a single-semester course. During the 2007-2008 school year, two cohorts of students will take the Test of Economic Literacy (TEL) as well as performance assessments and attitudinal surveys to test the impact of the new program compared to the materials in use in the classrooms of control teachers.
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Learning Point and Empirical Partner for Research on Formative Assessment
August 17, 2007
Learning Point Associates, which holds the contract for the Midwest Regional Education Lab, has contracted with Empirical Education for the operations of a large randomized experiment expected to include more than 100 elementary school teachers when in full swing in the fall of 2008. A pilot experiment, beginning this fall, involvies a small number of schools in Illinois. The experiment will test the effectiveness of Northwest Evaluation Association’s formative assessment and professional development to be used in fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms. Working with the principal investigators Matt Dawson of LPA and David Cordray of Vanderbilt, Empirical will be responsible for recruiting schools, acquiring and warehousing student data, and conducting observations and surveys.
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EDC Partners with Empirical for Regional Lab in the Northeast
October 31, 2006
Empirical Education signed on as a partner in the Northeast and the Islands Regional Educational Laboratory, or NEIREL, joining prime contractor Education Development Center of Newton, MA and its other partners, WestEd and AIR. The company’s primary responsibility will be in the area of technical assistance to state and local systems in New England and New York state, as well as the islands–Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. In particular, the company will be developing workshops to introduce school system decision-makers to using and conducting rigorous research. Marilyn Quinsaat, Empirical’s VP for Business Development who leads the company’s operations with NEIREL, commented, “We welcome this opportunity to work with our colleagues at EDC and help them contribute to the research base for their region.” The REL contract is expected to be extended until March 2011.
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Partnership with SERVE for REL-Southeast Project
June 8, 2006
Empirical Education and SERVE (a research unit of the University of North Carolina-Greensboro) have signed a contract making the company a partner in the work of the Regional Education Lab in the Southeast. Empirical’s primary responsibility will be in the area of randomized experiments to be undertaken in the region. The initial project is the four-year state-wide effectiveness study of the Alabama Math Science and Technology Initiative. The company is also advising on technical and operational aspects of other experiments in the planning stage. The REL is authorized for five years.
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Empirical Education Initiates a Statewide Trial of AMSTI
January 30, 2006
As part of its grant from the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Research, Empirical Education is working with the Alabama State Department of Education’s Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) staff and with representatives from three of the regions to conduct a randomized experiment of the AMSTI project. Empirical facilitated the random assignment of 40 schools into those who will be part of the AMSTI program for the 2006-2007 school year and those who will join the program in the following year; the latter group will serve as the control group. The company is expecting that additional funding sources will allow the experiment to continue for three years and include a replication in additional regions of the state.
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Empirical and Stanford Join Forces to Help School Districts Implement Rigorous Research
September 14, 2004
Empirical Education has signed a co-development agreement with Stanford University, in which Stanford will assist in the development of statistical analysis processes of school data, including models and procedures in the statistical software SAS environment. In July 2004, Empirical Education was awarded a three-year, $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences to refine an experimental methodology that school districts can use to measure the effectiveness of instructional programs they are considering. “This agreement gives us access to a world-class educational research environment and will help us improve the quality of information we provide to the schools,” said Denis Newman, Empirical Education founder. Edward H. Haertel, professor at the School of Education at Stanford University, principal investigator for Stanford’s effort, said, “I am pleased that Stanford is involved with this innovative approach to helping school districts use rigorous experimental methods to guide their decision-making.”