Quality Of Study

Assignment 1 (10 points): Evaluate the overall quality of the below study: a) assess construct, internal and external
validity. b) Identify the potential/existing threats to the study’s internal validity. c) Taking into consideration the
potential/existing threats to this study validity provide alternative explanations to the results of the study. Due date:
Thursday, Jan 31, 2019 11:59 pm via Blackboard. [COMMENT: pay very close attention to wording & definitions. Some of
the issues with research design manifest only after you will link the research procedures to commonly known information
not provided in the description of the research design and/or when common sense logic is applied to your analysis of
procedures described below]
Problem:
Integrating newcomers into Canadian society is an important policy agenda. This is associated with faster economic
growth and social stability. One of the strategies in the recently adopted policy initiative is to facilitate adaptation of
children of newcomers’ to Canadian schools. The City of Vancouver, which is known for high rate of immigration from the
Southeast Asia, was selected for a pilot project to evaluate prospective interventions designed to evaluate how existing
programs in schools could be used and/or modified to facilitate adoption of Canada’s education of immigrants’ children.
Study design:
The study targeted the children of immigrants who immigrated to Canada in the previous 6 months. The high school
children of recent immigrants were placed in three different groups based on the results of the test that evaluated their
ability to solve logical and mathematical problems. These three groups included: a) intensive study group – a group of
regular Canadian school students who underperformed academically in the previous year. The specially designed
intensive academic program was administered in this group to improve academic performance of students. With
permission of parents the immigrant students who demonstrated lower scores on the logic and math test. b) the second
group consisted of regular Canadian school students who have shown good and average academic performance in the
previous academic year. Students of recent immigrants with lower and average scores on the logic and math test were
placed in this group. c) The third group – advanced learning group – consisted of regular Canadian students with special
interests in science & engineering. The group of immigrant students with highest scores on logic and math were placed in
this group.
Results:
After one year of the pilot program all students’ academic performance statistics was compared with the statistics for the
previous year. The results of this comparison have shown that:
a. The intensive training group has demonstrated the highest results. Immigrant students not only outperformed
their own group academically, they have shown academic results comparable to the results of the advanced
group. The immigrant students in this group also have shown higher rate of improvement when compared to
immigrant students in other groups.
b. The academic performance of immigrant students in the second group was higher than academic performance of
Canadian students in this group, but was not much different from academic performance of immigrant students
in the advanced group.
c. The academic performance of immigrant students in the advanced study group was lower than performance of
Canadian students, but higher than performance of Canadian students in the second group.
Conclusions:
Based on the results of the pilot study research made policy recommendations:
a. The intensive study program appear to benefit immigrant students the most and should be administered to all
new comers;
b. Since it appears that on average immigrant students outperform Canadian students academically, the lower
scores of immigrant students in the advanced program may be explained by the format of the program. It would
be justified to review the program to better fit the needs of immigrant students;
c. The better average performance of immigrant students when compared to Canadian students appear to be
explained by value newcomers assign to education.