blog posts and news stories

District Data Study: Empirical’s Newest Research Product

Empirical Education introduces its newest offer: District Data Study^TM. Aimed at providing evidence of effectiveness, District Data Study assists vendors in conducting quantitative case studies using historical data from schools and districts currently engaged in a specific educational program.

There are two basic questions that can be cost-effectively answered given the available data.

1. Are the outcomes (behavioral or academic) for students in schools that use the program better than outcomes of comparable students in schools not (or before) using the program?
2. Is the amount of program usage associated with differences in outcomes?

The data studies result in concise reports on measurable academic and behavioral outcomes using appropriate statistical analyses of customer data from implementation of the educational product or program. District Data Study is built on efficient procedures and engineering infrastructure that can be applied to individual districts already piloting a program or veteran clients with longstanding implementation.

MeasureResults® to be Launched at CoSN 2010

Empirical Education will launch its web-based educational research solution, MeasureResults on March 1 at the Consortium for School Networking conference in Washington, DC. MeasureResults is a suite of online tools that makes rigorous research designs and statistical processes accessible to school systems and educational publishers who want to evaluate the effectiveness of products and services aimed at improving student performance.

“MeasureResults will change the way that school districts and product developers conduct rigorous evaluations,” said Denis Newman, Empirical Education President. “Instead of hiring outside evaluators or onsite research experts or statisticians, MeasureResults allows school district personnel to design a study, collect data, and review reports in our user-friendly online platform.”

MeasureResults grew out of a federally funded research project to develop a low-cost method for schools to conduct their own research. The product was developed for commercial distribution under a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the U.S. Department of Education. By moving the educational research processes online, MeasureResults makes school-run evaluations more efficient and less expensive.