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Mathematica Launches New Working Paper Series
Contact: Jennifer de Vallance, (202) 484-4692
WASHINGTON, DC—December 8, 2011—Policymakers require timely, accurate, evidence-based research as soon as it's available. Further, statistical agencies need information about techniques and survey practices that yield valid and reliable data. To better meet these needs, Mathematica Policy Research recently launched a working paper series offering policymakers and researchers access to our most current work.
The series launched with three working papers and will release future papers as they are ready on a regular basis. It will feature cutting-edge research from our health, human services, and survey and statistical experts on compelling issues across Mathematica's diverse topic areas. In addition to providing access to our most current work, the working papers will share some of the in-depth analyses behind our other publications. The papers are intended to encourage discussion before final peer review and possible publication. In keeping with Mathematica's high standards of quality, all working papers undergo a rigorous internal quality review.
The first three papers are:
- "Do Charter Schools Improve Student Achievement? Evidence from a National Randomized Study," by senior researcher Melissa Clark, senior fellow Philip Gleason, senior researcher Christina Clark Tuttle, and Marsha Silverberg. This paper looks at findings from the first national randomized study of the impacts of charter schools on student achievement.
- "False Performance Gains: A Critique of Successive Cohort Indicators," by senior fellow Steven Glazerman and researcher Liz Potamites. There are many ways to use student test scores to evaluate schools. This paper defines and examines different estimators including regression-based value-added indicators, average gains, and successive cohort differences in achievement levels. The paper helps assess which methods provide useful information for school accountability and why.
- "RDD Unplugged: Findings from a Household Survey Using a Cell Overlap Design," by senior statistician John Hall, associate director Barbara Lepidus Carlson, and senior survey researcher Karen CyBulski. Using data from the Health Tracking Household Survey, the authors provide a case study on reaching survey respondents using both cell phones and land lines.
Visit our website for more information and a complete listing of our working paper series.
About Mathematica: Mathematica Policy Research, a nonpartisan research firm, provides a full range of research and data collection services, including program evaluation and policy research, survey design and data collection, research assessment and interpretation, and program performance/data management, to improve public well-being. Its clients include federal and state governments, foundations, and private-sector and international organizations. The employee-owned company, with offices in Princeton, N.J., Ann Arbor, Mich., Cambridge, Mass., Chicago, Ill., Oakland, Calif., and Washington, D.C., has conducted some of the most important studies of health care, education, international, disability, family support, employment, nutrition, and early childhood policies and programs.