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Part III: Building What Works

Chapter 14

Proving It: Efficacy and Evidence

Every education-technology company claims its product improves learning. Few can show it to a standard that would persuade a sceptical researcher. This chapter explains how education evidence is produced and judged, why sample size and clustering decide what a study can detect, and how to read efficacy claims. Appendix A works through the cost-effectiveness and sample-size arithmetic for two stylized interventions.

The preview ends here. The full chapter is in the book.

In this chapter

  1. 14.1The ESSA evidence tiers
  2. 14.2Designs from strongest to weakest
  3. 14.3Effect sizes and what inflates them
  4. 14.4Power, clustering and the minimum detectable effect
  5. 14.5The selection trap in usage studies
  6. 14.6The evidence institutions
  7. 14.7What the landmark studies teach
  8. 14.8Evidence as a staged portfolio