Key Issues and Strategies for Recruitment and Implementation in Large-Scale Randomized Controlled Trial Studies in Afterschool Settings. Afterschool Research Brief. Issue No. 2

• Published in: SEDL
• Main Authors: Jones, Debra Hughes, Vaden-Kiernan, Michael, Rudo, Zena, Fitzgerald, Robert, Hartry, Ardice, Chambers, Bette, Smith, Dewi, Muller, Patricia, Moss, Marcey A
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: SEDL 2008
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Adolescents; After School Education; After School Programs; Bilingual Education; California; Educational Strategies; English (Second Language); Indiana; Intervention; Kentucky; Maryland; New York; Partnerships in Education; Program Implementation; Reading Programs; Recruitment; Research Methodology; Second Language Learning; Texas; New York; Indiana; Texas; Kentucky; California; Maryland

Under the larger scope of the National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning, SEDL funded three awardees to carry out large-scale randomized controlled trials (RCT) assessing the efficacy of promising literacy curricula in afterschool settings on student academic achievement. SEDL provided analytic and technical support to the RCT studies through its Afterschool Research Consortium (ARC), composed of SEDL researchers, key staff from each research project, and experts in the field. The ARC convened at least twice a year to discuss accomplishments, challenges, and solutions to the implementation of the funded RCT study designs. The ARC has been committed to the dissemination of information to the field about the effective use of rigorous experimental research approaches in applied afterschool settings. This research brief is the second in a series of papers intended to address some of the key challenges faced by awardees in order to provide insights to the research and practice community. The information for this brief includes lessons extracted from ARC discussions and activities, guidance provided by ARC experts, site visits and interviews conducted by SEDL, and the findings described in the larger literature of afterschool research. This brief is organized according to the primary challenges undertaken by the ARC during the early funding and implementation period, which involved two interrelated topics: difficulties with the recruitment of sites and challenges with implementation of curricula that had been adapted to fit the afterschool setting. These issues are part of a larger set of often-uncovered mechanisms or "black box" events occurring during implementation that can insidiously contribute to dampened treatment effects in these applied studies. This discussion is aimed at contributing practical information about conducting RCT studies in applied settings, suggesting strategies that might help circumvent a few of the multiple ways in which study effects are threatened, and broadening such discussions in the field. (Contains 3 footnotes.) [For the related reports, see "Implementing Randomized Controlled Trial Studies in Afterschool Settings: The State of the Field. Afterschool Research Brief. Issue No. 1" (ED513820) and "The National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning Randomized Controlled Trial Studies of Promising Afterschool Programs: Summary of Findings. Afterschool Research Brief. Issue No. 3" (ED513822).]