We are pleased to announce an important new tool for researchers and funders who commission evaluation studies. Optimal Design with Empirical Information (OD+) is a major extension of the original Optimal Design software.

Optimal Design with Empirical Information (OD+) was created by Professor Stephen Raudenbush, Dr. Howard Bloom, and their colleagues, using a grant from the Foundation. OD+ weds the original software—which was designed to help researchers plan group-randomized trials—to a database of empirical information from studies of school and early-childhood program interventions meant to improve student achievement and various social-emotional and behavioral outcomes. This empirical information from prior studies helps researchers make better assumptions about the information needed to utilize OD+, such as the improved precision gained from using baseline information as a covariate, and how such outcomes have varied between and within schools, classrooms, and youth programs in prior studies.

Thousands of researchers have used Optimal Design over the years—including many encouraged by Federal agencies such as the Institute for Education Sciences (IES)—and we believe OD+ will be even an even more valuable tool for designing trials and writing proposals.

In addition, the Foundation has added a host of new and updated materials to our Resources section. Here, you’ll find publications on group-randomized trials as well as the Foundation’s conceptual framework, resources related to measuring social settings, and a new page devoted to work by our grantees studying the use of research evidence.