Education Week - April 24, 2013 - Special Report - S13

S13

EDUCATION WEEK APRIL 24, 2013
Industry & Innovation > www.edweek.org/go/i&ireport
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WHAT TO ASK
ABOUT RESEARCH

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School districts want to know the products and services
they buy will be worth the investment—and solid research
can help them make that judgment. But how should administrators evaluate the studies companies cite when trying
to land a sale?

ideas.

The education I experienced
at Peabody prepared me to

Here’s some advice on what to ask, courtesy of Ellen Bialo,
the president of New York City-based Interactive Educational Systems Design, which specializes in market and
product research and analysis; Rob Foshay, a senior partner
with the Foshay Group, a Dallas-based training and education company; and Kenneth Zeff, the chief strategy and
innovation officer for the Fulton County, Ga., schools:

understand and confront the
challenges in the health care
industry. I now have the skills
and connections to deliver value
to my organization and the
patients I serve.

Was the study conducted in a district that will allow
school officials to observe the intervention in action? The
opportunity to meet with those doing the implementation,
as well as firsthand observations, can clarify nuances and
success factors that would be lost in a written report.

Ashley Mace Krueger, B.S.
human & organizational
development (health and
human services)

Do the players in the study—both students and teachers—represent what your district looks like? If they don’t
have the same socioeconomic, cultural, and educational
backgrounds, the findings may not be transferable.

>> Can the company easily explain the product or service,
and the confirming research, to a variety of stakeholders?
If the methodology is too obscure, or the program seems
counterintuitive, it will be harder to rally the support that is
an important predictor of success.

How meaningful are the measures used for each benefit
claimed? For example, before-and-after gains are relevant
only if both measurements are done with the same test, or
tests designed to be compared. Also, a state-test passing
rate or score may not be sensitive enough to measure what
the product or service is designed to teach or facilitate.

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The study claims gains in achievement, but compared to
what? If there’s no comparison group, you can’t tell if the
product or service improved on what a district was already doing. And the comparison is meaningful only if both
groups were similar at the start of the study, or if statistical
adjustments were made to compensate for differences.
study conducted, written, and released or
>> Was theaccording to professional standards for design
published
integrity and research ethics? Ask the company how well
the study conforms to guidelines from the American
Educational Research Association, the American Evaluation
Association, the Software and Information Industry Association, and the What Works Clearinghouse.

What type of effectiveness research has been done by a
third party? For supplemental products, has a white paper
been done to tie it to other research? A case study is nice
for anecdotal research, but is it also backed by ample data?
SOURCE: Education Week

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Education Week - April 24, 2013 - Special Report

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