Clustered observational studies (COSs) are a critical analytic tool for educational effectiveness research. We present a design framework for the development and critique of COSs. The framework is built on the counterfactual model for causal inference and promotes the concept of designing COSs that emulate the targeted randomized trial that would have been conducted were it feasible. We emphasize the key role of understanding the assignment mechanism to study design. We review methods for statistical adjustment and highlight a recently developed form of matching designed specifically for COSs. We review how regression models can be profitably combined with matching and note best practices for estimates of statistical uncertainty. Finally, we review how sensitivity analyses can determine whether conclusions are sensitive to bias from potential unobserved confounders. We demonstrate concepts with an evaluation of a summer school reading intervention in a large U.S. school district.

中文翻译：

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聚类观察研究在教育中的设计

聚类观察研究（COSs）是教育有效性研究的重要分析工具。我们为COS的开发和评论提出了一个设计框架。该框架基于因果推理的反事实模型，并提倡设计COS的概念，以模拟可行的定向随机试验。我们强调了解分配机制以研究设计的关键作用。我们回顾了统计调整的方法，并重点介绍了最近为COS设计的匹配形式。我们回顾了如何将回归模型与匹配项有利地结合起来，并指出了统计不确定性估算的最佳做法。最后，我们回顾了敏感性分析如何确定结论是否对潜在的未观察到的混杂因素的偏见敏感。我们通过评估大型美国学区的暑期学校阅读干预来演示概念。