MDRC's The Higher Education Randomized Controlled Trials Restricted Access File (THE-RCT RAF)

<b>The Higher Education Randomized Controlled Trial (THE-RCT) study aims to capitalize on existing data from postsecondary education RCTs to foster substantive and methodological scholarship and encourage teaching and learning opportunities.</b> The cornerstone of THE-RCT is a restricted access file (RAF). This version contains individual-participant data from more than 30 of MDRC's higher education RCTs covering over 50 institutions and over 50,000 students. The data were originally collected as part of different randomized controlled trial evaluations of a variety of higher education interventions. The data were collected for different student samples, at different times, and in different locations for each study.<br><br>The data were collected from four data sources: <br><b>Baseline:</b> Baseline student demographic data (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, age, etc.) were gathered, either via a survey administered to students upon joining the study (but prior to random assignment) or from study colleges' administrative records; <b>College Transcript:</b> Student transcript data (e.g., enrollment, credits attempted, credits earned, GPA) were provided by the study colleges or state higher education agencies; <b>College Credential Attainment:</b> Student credential attainment data were provided by the study colleges or state higher education agencies; <b>National Student Clearinghouse:</b> Student enrollment and credential attainment data were provided by the National Student Clearinghouse via their StudentTracker database. This includes enrollment and credential attainment data at colleges beyond the colleges where the study took place.<br>The RAF contains student-level data, including baseline demographics (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity), outcomes (e.g., enrollment, credits earned, credentials), an indicator of experimental group (e.g., program or control group), and study variables (e.g., a variable that allows users to link to the RCT-level database).

<b>高等教育随机对照试验（THE-RCT）项目旨在利用高等教育领域现有随机对照试验（Randomized Controlled Trial, RCT）数据，推动实质性与方法学层面的学术研究，并助力教学与学习实践发展。</b> 该项目的核心支撑为受限访问数据集（restricted access file, RAF）。本版本包含MDRC旗下30余项高等教育随机对照试验的个体参与者数据，覆盖超过50所院校与5万余名学生。该数据集最初是针对各类高等教育干预措施开展的多组随机对照试验评估的组成部分，各项研究针对不同的学生样本、在不同时段与不同地点完成了数据采集。<br><br>数据来源于四类采集渠道：<br><b>基线数据（Baseline）:</b> 收集学生基线人口统计学数据（如性别、种族/族裔、年龄等），采集方式包括学生加入研究且尚未接受随机分组前填写的问卷调查，或是来自参与院校的行政记录；<br><b>院校成绩单（College Transcript）:</b> 学生成绩单数据（如入学状态、修读学分、已获学分、平均绩点）由参与院校或州高等教育机构提供；<br><b>院校学历获取情况（College Credential Attainment）:</b> 学生学历获取数据由参与院校或州高等教育机构提供；<br><b>全国学生信息交换所（National Student Clearinghouse）:</b> 学生入学与学历获取数据由全国学生信息交换所通过其StudentTracker数据库提供，涵盖研究参与院校以外其他院校的相关数据。<br>本受限访问数据集包含学生层面的各类数据，具体包括：基线人口统计学信息（如性别、种族/族裔）、结局指标（如入学状态、已获学分、学历证书）、实验组别标识（如干预组或对照组）以及研究变量（如可用于关联至随机对照试验层面数据库的变量）。