The Computing, Government, and Graphics sections of the ASA are proud to sponsor the annual Data Challenge Expo at the JSM 2026 meetings held in Boston Massachusetts from August 1-6, 2026 (community.amstat.org/dataexpo/home).
Challenge: What works in education?
Participants in this 2026 Data Expo Challenge will develop a research question to explore, analyze, and visualize the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) comprehensive research database. This dataset represents the U.S. Department of Education's historical commitment to transparency and evidence-based education policy. The dataset contains details about the design and findings from over 13,000 studies. The multi-level data structure provides individual findings nested within studies and intervention reports, accompanied by comprehensive research quality indicators including WWC standards ratings, evidence tiers, and effect sizes.
The dataset encompasses all major educational domains and grade levels, representing studies conducted across all U.S. states and regions with rich contextual data that helps answer the critical question of "what works for whom and under what conditions." This comprehensive coverage creates opportunities for multivariate analysis, longitudinal analysis, causal inference, and meta-analysis, among other possible methods.
This is your opportunity to contribute to evidence-based education policy and practice by using this gold-standard research database to uncover insights about how we design, implement, and evaluate educational interventions. Your analysis should aim to advance our understanding of educational effectiveness. Participants may enhance their analysis by incorporating additional datasets to provide broader educational, demographic, or policy context.
You can download the datset here.