Clearinghouse and Collaboratives
Donald Campbell, a rigorous psychologist, established standards for constructing quasi-experimental designs to address social and educational issues...
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Donald Campbell, a rigorous psychologist, established standards for constructing quasi-experimental designs to address social and educational issues. The establishment of this particular cooperative effort in 1999 is intended to set systematic review of research by various groups and avoid duplication by updating findings through integration of new, related results. Both experience and careful reasoning contribute to the interpretation of studies. This collaborative includes more than 80 researchers from all over the world.
The What Works Clearinghouse is one outcome of the initiatives for evidence-based educational projects that, like the Campbell collaborative, offers meta-analyses of many individual studies. Its philosophical premise is randomized, experimental studies. A screening instrument, Study Design and Implemntation Assessment, circumscribes the inclusion of studies.
Conditions for true experiments, while an ideal goal, are very rare in field-based studies so one alternative is called Extended-Term Mixed Evaluation Design. The long-term temporal and contextual base is especially important in the proclamation of broader guidelines for evaluation. Moreover, explanations of causality should include empirical and substantial knowledge about the program and its setting. Multiple methods and both formative and summative components are hallmarks of this methodology.
