Actively manage school recruitment to protect the generalizability of impact studies¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The guide treats recruitment as a design task, not an afterthought: researchers should be "managing school recruitment" as one of the key steps for making impact study findings generalizable. Recruitment management is positioned between sample selection and the assessment of sample-population differences in the guide's sequence of recommended actions.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A recruitment management process must be in place during study design and fielding

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• education researchers designing impact studies

Target Learning Goals¶

• recruiting schools in ways that preserve generalizability

Related Strategies¶

• Assess and adjust for differences between the study sample and the target population
• Define the target population as the first step in designing a generalizable impact study
• Select a sample of schools, including replacement schools when needed, to support generalizable impact studies
• Protect student and staff privacy when recruiting districts and schools for impact studies
• Address districts' and schools' urgent priorities and needs when recruiting them for impact studies
• Account for limited staff capacity when recruiting districts and schools for research

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Tipton, E., & Olsen, R. B. (2022). Enhancing the Generalizability of Impact Studies in Education. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE 2022-003). https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/