Improving Children’s Lives

The Centre for Effective Education is delighted to welcome Professor Gary Ritter for a two day visit on Wednesday 30th September and Thursday 1st October.
During his stay Professor Ritter will be delivering a workshop on  conducting randomised controlled trials in a social context and a lunchtime seminar on the role of tutoring programmes in enhancing academic performance (further details are below).Gary W. Ritter is the holder of the Endowed Chair in Education Policy in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. He is also the Director of the University's Office for Education Policy and serves as a principal investigator on the US Department of Education’s “What Works Clearinghouse” project (leading the review of middle school math curricula).  He has taught courses in program evaluation, education policy, and research methods at the University of Arkansas since 2000, when he earned a Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of Pennsylvania.

Gary has conducted research in the areas of program evaluation, school finance, standards-based and accountability-based school reform, racial segregation in schools, and teacher compensation. His work has been published in journals such as Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, the Review of Educational Research,  the Journal of Education Finance, Education Finance & Policy, the American Review of Public Administration, the Journal of Research in Education, the International Journal of Testing, the Georgetown Public Policy Review, Black Issues in Higher Education, Educational Leadership, and Education Next.

Everyone is welcome.

1.  WORKSHOP - WEDNESDAY 30TH SEPTEMBER, 11am - 3.30PM,  G13 (CATHCART ROOM), SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

TITLE

Doing Randomized Controlled Trials without the Control: Conducting Random Assignment Studies in a Social Context

DESCRIPTION

In this workshop, we will discuss the challenges, possibilities, and ultimately the importance of conducting random assignment in social (and particularly educational) contexts.  The workshop will be organized roughly around the following questions:·      

• What exactly is a Randomized Field Trial (RFT) and how is it different from an RCT?     
• What types of questions can RFTs help us address?     
• In the absence of RFTs, what are policymakers and others using as evidence?   
• How can such evidence lead them/us astray?
• What are the common arguments against doing RFTs?
• Why should we continue to do RFTs anyway?       
• What are the logistical issues than can undermine RFTs?
• What are some lessons from the field in successfully conducting RFTs?

The workshop will conclude with a presentation of the results of an actual RFT conducted in 2006-08 with more than 4,000 school children in the US on the impact of technology in the classroom.

2.   SEMINAR PRESENTATION - THURSDAY 1ST OCTOBER, 1PM - 2PM (a sandwich lunch will be provided at 12.30pm), G13 (CATHCART ROOM), SCHOOL OF EDUCATION.

TITLE

Do Volunteer Tutoring Programs Enhance Academic Performance for Tutees? A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT

This meta-analysis assesses the effectiveness of volunteer tutoring programs for improving the academic skills of students enrolled in public schools Grades K-8 in the United States and further investigates for whom and under what conditions tutoring can be effective.  The authors found 21 studies (with 28 different study cohorts in those studies) reporting on randomized field trials to guide them in assessing the effectiveness of volunteer tutoring programs.  Overall, the authors found volunteer tutoring has a positive effect on student achievement.  With respect to particular subskills, students who work with volunteer tutors are likely to earn higher scores on assessments related to letters and words, oral fluency, and writing as compared to their peers who are not tutored.