IPR - Publications

WP-99-02

Considering the Major Arguments Against Random Assignment:
An Analysis of the Intellectual Culture Surrounding Evaluation
in American Schools of Education

Thomas D. Cook

Abstract

This paper notes the very low incidence of randomized experiments in research on school reform and claims that the few that have been done are the product of researchers in fields other than education. It seeks to probe why scholars teaching in schools of education do not do experiments. Eight arguments against random assignment that such researchers invoke are then examined. All are rejected, though some are acknowledged to have considerable merit. Taken together, they do not constitute a case strong enough to reject random assignment. But they do suggest two things of importance: randomized experiments do not provide a "gold standard" for causal inference

Thomas D. Cook, Department of Sociology, Northwestern University

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