学校改善モデルの有効性に係わる科学的基準に関する検討 : 米国のComprehensive School Reformプログラムに着眼して

Abstract

It may be true that improving student outcomes is the ultimate purpose of all educational policymakers and educational researchers. Improving the effectiveness of the intervention, which involves an educational program, a product, a practice, or a policy aimed at improving student outcomes is a typical purpose to be accomplished. However, it should be noted that this study addressed the question "how and why can you say that intervention X caused the outcome Y?" or "what gives assurance that intervention X caused the outcome Y?" and not "did intervention X cause the outcome Y?" That is, the purpose of this study was not to discuss the effectiveness itself but pave the way for discussing the effectiveness. The target of this paper is the methodology used in the Comprehensive School Reform Quality Center report, which evaluated and rated the effectiveness of models used by the schools in the Comprehensive School Reform program. The characteristic of the methodology is a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT), which is the "gold standard" for evidence-based policies in the USA. This paper demonstrates why the methodology is superior to the econometric methodology based on the theory of Cartwright.