A Case Study of Causal Inference for Multilevel Observational Data

To evaluate the effect of retaining students in kindergarten instead of promoting them to first grade Hong & Raudenbush (2005, 2006) use a methodology that incorporates principal stratification, propensity scores, and hierarchical modeling.

I imagine a similar methodology is the way to go to evaluate the effect of placing students in pre-algebra instead of algebra 1. If only I could understand what it means.

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Hong, G. & Raudenbush, S. W. (2005). Effects of kindergarten retention policy on children’s cognitive growth in reading and mathematics. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 27 (3), 205-224.

Hong, G. & Raudenbush, S. W. (2005). Evaluating kindergarten retention policy: A cause study of causal inference for multilevel observational data. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 101, 901-910.