title: Meta-analysis: a case study.
abstract: This article raises some questions about the usefulness of meta-analysis as a means of reviewing quantitative research in the social sciences. When a meta-analytic model for SAT coaching is used to predict results from future studies, the amount of prediction error is quite large. Interpretations of meta-analytic regressions and quantifications of program and study characteristics are shown to be equivocal. The match between the assumptions of the meta-analytic model and the data from SAT coaching studies is not good, making statistical inferences problematic. Researcher subjectivity is no less problematic in the context of a meta-analysis than in a narrative review.
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.
authors.forename: Derek C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Briggs
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001077:Aptitude Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D013663:Teaching