Professional Development Institutes

Dates: July 14 - 24, 2025
Location: Northwestern University
Application due date:  Friday, April 11, 2025

The Center runs an annual 10-day training institute on CRTs, with a focus on providing participants with the knowledge and skills to conduct a Goal 3 or 4 randomized experiments in education.

The purpose of this training is to prepare current education researchers to plan, design, conduct, analyze, and interpret the results of cluster-randomized trials.

The course will enable participants to:

• Describe the principles underlying randomized experiments and their advantages for making causal inferences.
• Understand the hierarchical structure of populations in education (students nested in classes nested in schools) and its implications for study design and analysis of data.
• Select appropriate measures for assessing outcomes, describing implementation fidelity, and capturing process variables.
• Acquire knowledge and strategies for designing and conducting a cluster-randomized trial.
• Recruit and retain a sample of schools and students for the duration of the trial and manage trial operations.

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Questions?

If you have questions about the 2025 RCT Summer Training Institute, please contact Valerie Lyne at v-lyne@northwestern.edu.

Dates: July 8 –12, 2024
Location: Northwestern University
The Center runs a 5-day Summer Training Institute that will provide STEM education researchers with a broad introduction to contemporary evaluation methods that can be applied directly to their studies. In particular, the workshop will focus on small studies (e.g., 10 classrooms) in which large scale experimental methods are difficult to implement.

Topics will include:
• An introduction to causal inference methods, confounding and validity concerns in research
• Methods for matching to control for selection bias
• Pretest-posttest and difference in difference designs
• Small field experiments and pilot study designs

Broader discussions of trade-offs, design sensitivity, effect size reporting, and questionable research practices (e.g., p-hacking) will also be included.

In addition to attending lectures, participants will take part in group projects, individual homework assignments, and an online community. This online community will continue after the workshop and will provide participants with ongoing resources for implementing these new methods into their research.

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Applicants should have experience conducting evaluations of STEM interventions in schools (though not necessarily using experiments), previous coursework in basic statistics and research design. Early career researchers and those from under-represented groups are encouraged to apply. The workshop is open to faculty, researchers and advanced doctoral students at US institutions (US citizenship not required).

Questions?

If you have questions about the 2024 Improving Evaluations of R&D in STEM Education Institute, please contact Valerie Lyne at v-lyne@northwestern.edu.

Dates: TBD
Location: Downtown Chicago, IL
Application due date: 

Georgia State University, in collaboration with the STEPP Center, runs an annual 6-day training institute on advanced meta-analysis methods, providing researchers with the knowledge and skills they need to conduct a Goal 1 study in education. MATI is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences.

The purpose of this training institute is to provide researchers with previous training or experience in meta-analysis with training in the use of R for analysis, including advanced methods in:

• Advanced effect sizes (e.g., pre-post, regression coefficients, clustered)
• Power analysis for main effects and moderators
• Methods for handling dependent effect sizes (robust variance estimation)
• Meta-regression
• Missing data (both outcomes and moderators)
• Publication bias
• Meta-SEM
• Single-case designs
• Interpretation of results (particularly with heterogeneity)
• Choosing a database management system (e.g., FileMaker vs Excel)
• Setting up a database
• Training coders and assessing reliability
• Budgeting
• Scoping and coding
• Timelines

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Questions?

If you have questions about the 2025 Meta-Analysis Training Institute, then please contact the training team at mati@gsu.edu.

If you have questions about the IES grant supporting this training (R305B170019), then please contact Dr. Allen Ruby.

Dates: 2025 TBD
Location: Washington, DC
Application due date: TBD

Georgia State University, in collaboration with the STEPP Center, runs an annual 5-day training institute on state-of-the-art meta-analytic methods. MMARI is funded by the National Science Foundation.

The purpose of this institute is to provide STEM researchers with a comprehensive, introductory meta-analysis workshop focused on state-of-the-art methods including use of the program R. Like other introductory courses, the institute is targeted at early-career researchers with no previous experience with meta-analysis. Participants will be able to use R for meta-analysis; understand differences between effect sizes and compute effect sizes from the most common types of data reported in studies; specify an appropriate meta-analysis model; estimate and report both an average effect size and the extent of variation in effect sizes; explore and interpret heterogeneity of effect sizes using meta-regression models, and conduct appropriate publication bias analyses and interpret the effect of possible bias on findings.

The workshop includes four and one half days of training and one half day of group presentations. Each day will include four sessions and time to work on the group project. The integrative project will provide participants with an opportunity to practice conducting a meta-analysis.

Get details and application materials

Questions?

If you have questions about the 2025 Modern Meta-Analysis Research Institute, then please contact the training team at mmari@gsu.edu.