Randomized Controlled Trials
Randomized controlled trials are the gold standard in research, driving some of the most important advances in fields like technology and medicine—and we’re using them to do the same in education.
A randomized controlled trial, or RCT, produces rigorous causal evidence about the efficacy and impact of policies and programs. RCTs randomly assign participants to either a “treatment group” that is offered the intervention or a “control group” that has access to all other services except for the intervention. Because of the way they are designed, RCTs provide the best possible counterfactual to compare against when evaluating the impact of a program.
RCTs are the FDA standard for clinical trials of drugs and medical devices, form the backbone of A/B testing methodology that companies like Google use to develop more effective technology, and are at the vanguard of the growing movement towards evidence-based policy, which calls for policy to be based on the best available research.
The Education Lab uses RCTs as our preferred method of project evaluation wherever possible. While RCTs can be time and resource intensive, they generate high-quality results to ensure that our partners and policymakers can make informed decisions about how to best support students.
Latest Updates
Students may need more daily tutoring after COVID pandemic
In this episode of WBEZ’s Reset, Sadie Stockdale Jefferson, PhD and Luke Pardue, PhD, economic policy fellow at Aspen Economic Strategy Group sit down with Sasha-Ann Simons to discuss the Education Lab’s latest paper, released as part of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group’s annual policy volume.
Overcoming Pandemic Learning Loss: Bringing High-Dosage Tutoring to Students Nationwide
The Aspen Economic Strategy Group (AESG) is hosting an event related to the publication of a new paper by the Education Lab’s faculty co-directors, Dr. Jens Ludwig and Dr. Jon Guryan, titled “Overcoming Pandemic-Induced Learning Loss.”
America’s Students Need an Operation Warp Speed
The Education Lab’s faculty co-directors, Dr. Jens Ludwig, professor at the University of Chicago, and Dr. Jon Guryan, professor at Northwestern University, make the case for a large-scale tutoring program designed to compensate for pandemic-era learning loss and equalize educational opportunities in the long-term.