In this assignment, you will read an evaluation paper and comment on the evaluation design.
Article: Bronson, Pierson, and Tivnan (1984) The Effects of Early Education on Children’s Competence in Elementary School.
Questions:
(1) The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of Brookline Early Education Program (BEEP) on children’s competence in elementary school. When evaluating BEEP, how did the researchers address the limitations demonstrated in previous evaluation studies?
(2) To examine the effects of BEEP, how many children in total did the researchers include in the sample?
(3) Did the researchers use experimental design or quasi-experimental design to evaluate the effects of BEEP? How do you know? (1’)
(4) What outcome measures or classroom behavior observations did researchers use in this evaluation? (0.5’)
(5) Researchers used trained observers to record classroom behaviors. What strategies did the researchers use to reduce the subjective bias of individual observers? (1.5’)
(6) The sample selection suggests a certain extent of self-selection problem. Please explain whether self-selection imposes any threat to internal validity of this evaluation study. (1.5’)
(7) Was BEEP effective? (0.5’) What evidence did the researchers find? List at least three (1.5’)
