Research Basics
Lumina Foundation strives to be a valuable resource for researchers and others seeking more information about the topics we have pursued. Research has been at the core of our work since the Foundation's inception and remains central to our mission. Research helps ground our work in data and informs our grant making.
Lumina Foundation staff members include a small cadre of researchers, each bringing a record of publications and research skills. These staff members also serve as program officers,helping the Foundation assess grant requests. In addition, they evaluate and manage our portfolio of research grants, as well as conduct their own research projects.
To guide the Foundation as it strives to inform issues affecting access and success in postsecondary education, we invited Fred Galloway, associate professor in the School of Education at the University of San Diego, to write two papers regarding the appropriate use of quantitative research techniques.
Because the Foundation believes in the importance of sharing information, we offer these papers to the education community in the spirit of increased methodological rigor and more policy-relevant quantitative research.
The Secrets Behind Producing Meaningful Quantitative Research: What Every Foundation Official Really Needs to Know PDF —This paper is aimed at Foundation officials and staff interested in developing a basic understanding of research design, causality, and the resulting techniques that support high quality quantitative research.
A Methodological Primer for Conducting Quantitative Research in Postsecondary Education at the Lumina Foundation for Education PDF —This paper is aimed at researchers interested in producing more inferentially robust and policy relevant research through, among other things, the optimal pairing of analytical techniques with research questions.
