Emerging Impacts: Quasi-Experimental Analysis of a Statewide Comprehensive School Improvement Initiative in Its First Year

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Abstract

This study describes interim results on student achievement from a three-year evaluation of a statewide comprehensive school improvement initiative. Using a quasi-experimental design, the authors estimated the impact of the initiative after the first year of implementation. A comparison group was created in two stages. First, propensity score matching (PSM) identified schools that were equally as likely to be a part of the initiative. Then, students within treatment and comparison schools identified by the PSM process were matched using coarsened exact matching. Authors analyzed impacts on student achievement and behavioral outcomes using longitudinal models. The findings show emerging positive associations with treatment schools after the first of three years of implementation, though none of the estimates are statistically significant.

Authors

• Havala Hanson, Education Northwest

• Kathryn Elizabeth Torres, Education Northwest