For Immediate Release: July 15, 2009

Over the past decade, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has emphasized the use of gold standard research methods in identifying effective education programs and practices.  Gold standard research methods can present novel challenges to researchers, particularly surrounding participant recruitment, data collection, and study design implementation. A panel discussion organized by Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal) at the 2009 American Education Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting in San Diego, April 13-17, engaged researchers in a discussion of these particular study implementation challenges.

Toks Fashola, PhD, a Senior Research Fellow at Optimal, served as panel chair for a session at the AERA conference. The title of the panel was "Sample Recruitment, Design Implementation, and Data Collection in RFT Designs: Districts and Schools as Partners." Monica Leal Priddy, a Research Associate at Optimal, presented her research in the session. Her presentation, titled "Recruitment Challenges, Considerations, and Best Practices for Recruitment Efforts," described lessons learned in the context of two Optimal projects, the National Charter School Evaluation project on which Optimal serves as a subcontractor to Mathematica Policy Research, and the Study of Teacher Preparation in Early Reading Instruction, on which Optimal serves as the prime contractor. Both studies are funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance at the ED.

A full list of panel members and their presentations from this session are available on Optimal's Education Research Center web page.

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Founded in 2000, Optimal Solutions Group, LLC is a non-partisan public policy research firm dedicated to rigorous and evidence-based research. Optimal's clients are local, state, and federal governments; non-governmental organizations; and corporations and foundations. With close to 60 employees in two locations in Maryland, Optimal has grown quickly by building on a reputation of exceptional services and products. Our clients benefit from our innovations, value, and efficiency, which we have been able to establish through a robust technology-based infrastructure, uncompromising and documented quality-control procedures, and effective employee recruitment techniques. Optimal has four research centers: health, education, workforce development, and housing.

For more information, please contact Optimal's Communications Department at 301.306.1170 or info@optimalsolutionsgroup.com.