Don't Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water: How to extract the best outcomes from your RCT

• In Event: Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) in education: revisiting the promises of the RCT method

Proposal

Dana Burde and Elisabeth King (New York University) argue that although RCTs have numerous shortcomings that this panel illustrates well, there are many other benefits that it is important to consider when assessing them. To illustrate their points, they discuss two randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluations of education-related interventions. The first, (conducted by Burde, Middleton, and Samii) in Afghanistan studies the impact of community-based schools on children’s attendance and learning, and on households’ and villages’ perceptions of government. The second, (conducted by King, Beatty, BenYishay, Orbeto and Pradhan) is an evaluation of a community-driven development intervention—an informal education program paired with block grants—in the Philippines. In this presentation, they focus on common challenges and opportunities in RCTs across these two very different context and programs on a number of crucial issues, including design, methods, ethics, cost, and impact.

Authors

• Dana Burde, New York University

• Elisabeth King, New York University