Institute of Education London

Evaluation Methods And Economic Appraisal

Course Code:RMSQAN_EM1

Measuring the success or otherwise of educational policies is central to successful educational policy-making. This course uses statistical and econometric tools to evaluate different educational interventions and directly addresses a range of key policy issues including: Do school improvement programmes, such as the UK's Excellence in Cities programme, actually improve student outcomes? How effective are the Education Maintenance Allowances in increasing participation of low-income young people in post-16 education? Specific methodological topics that are covered include: research design, data sources, estimating the counterfactual, considerations of causality, quasi-experiments, observational studies, dealing with heterogeneity. This course aims to equip you with the statistical and econometric knowledge and skills needed to understand how to conduct an effective evaluation. It will also enable you to understand and critique evaluation studies that use quantitative methods. If you have studied economics in your first degree and are working in educational policy, this course will give you a better understanding of the economics behind education evaluations and rate of return calculations. Students must be familiar with the content of RMSPAE_11 Statistical Analysis.

Related Programmes

MPhil (Master of Philosophy) / PhD (Doctor of Philosophy)
Economics of Education MSc
Research for Public Policy and Practice MSc
Policy Analysis and Evaluation MSc