Propensity Score Matching in Education

Propensity score matching estimates the causal effect of an educational treatment from observational data by pairing treated students, schools, or teachers with comparison units that had the same probability of receiving the treatment given their observed characteristics. Introduced by Rosenbaum and Rubin, it collapses many confounding variables into a single score and matches on it, approximating the balance a randomized experiment would create. In education — where randomizing program participation, retention, or school choice is often impossible — it is a widely used quasi-experimental tool.