Studying Enrollment Decline (and other Timely Issues) via the Case Survey

Abstract

The subject of this paper is a technique to integrate several isolated case studies. It was created, almost by necessity, as a result of two problems which often plague educational researchers: constraints on data collection and the proliferation of one-shot case studies. Each problem will be discussed briefly. If educational researchers want to study a controversial issue, the implementation of a new technique, or the impact of a new policy, they are often constrained by a number of factors. In school closings, for example, it is possible that the cost of collecting data over the duration of the decision making process will be prohibitive. Second, access to the various participants may be problematic. People move away, boards go into executive session, and subjects may refuse to cooperate. Finally, it is often difficult to conceive a quasi-experimental or experimental design. Imagine a researcher who wants to study the effects of a community involvement policy on the closure decision. The researcher could not ask the school board