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November 18, 2005

Using Covariates to Improve Precision

The best way to measure the impacts of many important educational interventions is to randomly divide schools into a treatment group, which receives the intervention, and a control group, which does not — and then to compare future student achievement outcomes for the two groups. This paper examines how controlling statistically for baseline covariates (especially pretests) improves the precision of studies that randomize schools.

Posted by Gary Holden at November 18, 2005 10:26 AM