The Sensitivity of Impact Estimates to Data Sources Used: Analysis From an Access to Postsecondary Education Experiment

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 575-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reuben Ford ◽  
Douwêrê Grékou ◽  
Isaac Kwakye ◽  
Taylor Shek-wai Hui

Background: This article reports on the Future to Discover Project—a Canadian randomized controlled trial of two high school interventions—where data on key postsecondary enrollment outcomes were collected for two phases. During the initial phase, outcomes were recorded from administrative data and follow-up surveys. During the later phase, data came from administrative records only. Objectives: The article provides analyses that are informative about the consequences of a change from administrative-only data to survey-only data (and vice versa) for the estimation of impacts. Results: The change from administrative-only to survey-only data tended to produce apparent drops in postsecondary enrollment rates that varied by subgroup and education outcome. Nonetheless, levels and significance of impact with respect to postsecondary enrollment remained relatively stable. Conclusions: The findings of the article provide evidence that estimating education program impacts in the context of a randomized experiment can be relatively robust to the data sources chosen. They suggest that internal validity and conclusions for policy need not be affected by changing data sources even when the change produces marked changes in levels of the outcome of interest observed.

2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey Addi-Raccah ◽  
Hanna Ayalon

Using multilevel models, the authors tested the hypothesis that high schools, through their curricular policies, operate as mechanisms that help members of privileged groups to take better advantage of postsecondary opportunities. The analysis was based on a 7-year follow-up study of 44,666 Israeli students who graduated from 385 high schools in 1991. The main findings were that (a) the curricular experience of students partly mediated between their sociodemographic characteristics and postsecondary enrollment, (b) the curricular arrangements of schools fully mediated the effects of their social composition on their graduates’ postsecondary education, and (c) graduates of socially privileged schools made a better use of their matriculation certificates. This afforded privileged students an additional advantage.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Ellen Yeh ◽  
Guofang Wan

While the number of the Asian non-native English speakers (NNESs) is increasing, their postsecondary education (PSE) enrollment rate has remained low in comparison to enrollment rates of Asian native English speakers (NESs). The achievement gap in postsecondary enrollment between NNESs and NESs has widened, due not only to content areas such as reading and language arts that require higher English proficiency but also sociocultural factors, such as parental involvement. The current study aims to investigate the extent to which parental involvement factors predict the likelihood of Asian NNESs PSE enrollment after controlling for socioeconomic and linguistic factors. This study, being an expansion of previous work, which explored parental involvement and NNESs' PSE in the U.S., uses the national representative data from the Education Longitudinal Study dataset in 2002 (ELS: 2002) and a binary multilevel logistic regression model analysis. The results indicate that parental involvement is related to a greater likelihood of attending PSE institutions. Among the various forms of parental involvement, parent-student involvement and parent-school involvement have the greatest impact on Asian NNESs' PSE enrollment. The results also showed that Asian NNESs' enrollment is higher if their parents participate in school volunteer work. Limitations, future studies, and implications for educators, parents and school policy makers will also be discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barrett Sewali ◽  
Janet L. Thomas ◽  
Hongfei Guo ◽  
Kevin Peterson ◽  
Jasjit S. Ahluwalia ◽  
...  

Objective: To determine the effects of motivational interviewing (MI) counselling versus a minimal intervention control on the enrollment of smokers in the Minnesota QUITPLAN Helpline.Study design: Two-group randomized controlled trial of 235 community-dwelling adult smokers. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either a three-session phone based motivational interviewing intervention (n = 118) or the control (n = 117) consisting of mailed printed materials about the Minnesota QUITPLAN helpline services.Data collection: Participants completed demographic and smoking-related survey questionnaire at baseline (by mail) and at weeks 4 and 26 (by phone) follow-up. Quitline enrollment status data was provided by the Minnesota QUITPLAN Helpline.Principal findings: At week 4 follow-up, a higher proportion of participants in the MI group (22.3%) had enroled in the Minnesota QUITPLAN Helpline compared to those in the control arm (13.6%; p = 0.098). At week 26 follow-up, enrollment rates were similar for MI (28.0%) and control (26.5%) arms. Of those who enroled in the Helpline, participants in the MI group reported completing more Helpline sessions than those in control group (4.9 vs. 3.2; p = 0.087).There was no significant interaction between readiness to quit and intervention for the outcome of enrollment in the Helpline.Conclusions: A minimal intensity control such as mailing printed materials resulted in quitline enrollment rates similar to a more resource intensive intervention like motivational interviewing and several folds higher than the current state or national averages. We recommend that health plans should consider mailing smoking cessation promotional messages to encourage smokers to enrol in quitlines.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 1039-1052
Author(s):  
Reva M. Zimmerman ◽  
JoAnn P. Silkes ◽  
Diane L. Kendall ◽  
Irene Minkina

Purpose A significant relationship between verbal short-term memory (STM) and language performance in people with aphasia has been found across studies. However, very few studies have examined the predictive value of verbal STM in treatment outcomes. This study aims to determine if verbal STM can be used as a predictor of treatment success. Method Retrospective data from 25 people with aphasia in a larger randomized controlled trial of phonomotor treatment were analyzed. Digit and word spans from immediately pretreatment were run in multiple linear regression models to determine whether they predict magnitude of change from pre- to posttreatment and follow-up naming accuracy. Pretreatment, immediately posttreatment, and 3 months posttreatment digit and word span scores were compared to determine if they changed following a novel treatment approach. Results Verbal STM, as measured by digit and word spans, did not predict magnitude of change in naming accuracy from pre- to posttreatment nor from pretreatment to 3 months posttreatment. Furthermore, digit and word spans did not change from pre- to posttreatment or from pretreatment to 3 months posttreatment in the overall analysis. A post hoc analysis revealed that only the less impaired group showed significant changes in word span scores from pretreatment to 3 months posttreatment. Discussion The results suggest that digit and word spans do not predict treatment gains. In a less severe subsample of participants, digit and word span scores can change following phonomotor treatment; however, the overall results suggest that span scores may not change significantly. The implications of these findings are discussed within the broader purview of theoretical and empirical associations between aphasic language and verbal STM processing.


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