Good data gathering does not by itself support the inference that what has worked in one place will work in another. It won’t do to regard research results as a black box from which it can be directly ar¬gued, for instance, that since smaller class size led to better results in Tennessee, smaller classes will also lead to better results in California. The famous and expensive Tennessee STAR study (Student Achieve¬ment Teacher Ratio) was exemplary in its data-gathering techniques, using large numbers of students randomly assigned into control and experimental groups. Since the data gathering was so well conducted, policymakers in California reasoned that the results would apply to California and put that line of reasoning into effect at an estimated cost of $5 billion extra – without significant results. To infer reliably that carefully gathered results are replicable, one cannot treat them atheoretically. Data about what works in schools cannot necessarily simply be gathered from schools and then applied directly to improve different schools without the benefit of deep analysis and general pre¬dictive theory. To apply results elsewhere, one needs to understand in detail the causal factors that would allow confident predictions. What are the generalizable factors that make smaller class size more effec¬tive for earlier grades than for later ones? What are the replicable causes of student gain through smaller classes?
Good data gathering does not by itself support the inference that what has worked in one place will work in another. It won’t do to regard research results as a black box from which it can be directly ar¬gued, for instance, that since smaller class size led to better results in Tennessee, smaller classes will also lead to better results in California. The famous and expensive Tennessee STAR study (Student Achieve¬ment Teacher Ratio) was exemplary in its data-gathering techniques, using large numbers of students randomly assigned into control and experimental groups. Since the data gathering was so well conducted, policymakers in California reasoned that the results would apply to California and put that line of reasoning into effect at an estimated cost of $5 billion extra – without significant results. To infer reliably that carefully gathered results are replicable, one cannot treat them atheoretically. Data about what works in schools cannot necessarily simply be gathered from schools and then applied directly to improve different schools without the benefit of deep analysis and general pre¬dictive theory. To apply results elsewhere, one needs to understand in detail the causal factors that would allow confident predictions. What are the generalizable factors that make smaller class size more effec¬tive for earlier grades than for later ones? What are the replicable causes of student gain through smaller classes?
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