Abbas F Jawad
University of Pennsylvania
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
USA
Title: Cluster randomization trials in schools setting
Biography
Biography: Abbas F Jawad
Abstract
Cluster Randomization Trials in School Setting (CRTSS) are increasingly utilized in studying new and/or existing behavioral and drug therapies targeting students within in school setting. The units of the analyses are the students attending schools but the randomization to the interventions often done at the school levels. Many of such studies are conducted with a small number of schools which circumvents meaningful comparison at the school level. Designing, conducting, and analyzing CRTSS require accounting to sources of variations related to implementations of the interventions proposed, school’s seasons and years, and the therapists employing the interventions. Other source of variations is related to between cluster (school) variation and within school correlations. Power estimations and sample size calculations for CRTSS require special attention to the nesting design of such trials. We will discuss and present recent studies utilized the CRTSS such as a cluster randomized trial to evaluate external support for the implementation of positive behavioral interventions and supports by school personnel, The Preventing Relational Aggression in Schools Everyday Program and Family-School Intervention for Children with ADHD.
