Determining Control Groups for Project IMPACT

I've brainstormed some quasi-experimental design options for selecting a control group to match to the participants in Project IMPACT. Please take a look and let me know what you think. I'm also open to other ideas.

 Definitions of "control group":

The control group is composed of participants who do not receive the experimental treatment. When conducting an experiment, these people are randomly selected to be in this group. They also closely resemble the participants who are in the experimental group, or the individuals who receive the treatment. While they do not receive the treatment, they do play a vital role in the research process. Experimenters compare the experimental group to the control group to determine if the treatment had an effect. By serving as a comparison group, researchers are able to isolate the independent variable and look at the impact it had.

Options:

1.     Compare the general population of all community college students who register for courses, certificates, diplomas and/or associate degree programs in technical fields to participants in Project IMPACT(comparing population data to target data)

2.     A sample of new employees in manufacturing who have not interacted with community colleges compared to students who are part of Project IMPACT (comparing convenience sample data to target data)

3.     A comparison of the range of involvement of participants, using those who take the fewest courses with those who complete the MG certification, a diploma, an AAS degree and/or a BS at UNL (in essence, those who are least involved might constitute a “control group”

4.     Select a random sample of participants who register for Project IMPACT courses to receive no support (ie. remediation, coaching, etc.) and compare the progress to those participants who receive the full complement of services provided by the program

5.     Select a community college in the Midwest that has courses similar to Project IMPACT and compare educational and employment outcomes

6.     Utilize meta-analysis to determine a “pseudo-sample” that could function as a control group and compare to participants in Project IMPACT

7.     Select a small sample of participants in Project IMPACT activities and a matched small sample of participants in technical courses not affiliated with the project and monitor over time using the case study method