January 2016
Understanding student speech rights in the digital age
A 2-hour workshop taught by Claire J. Porter, JD, M.Ed. Register Overview On a daily basis, school administrators deal with on-campus, student speech issues; increasingly, they are also asked to address online, off-campus scenarios such as cyberbullying, online parodies of teachers and administrators, and true threats to the school and students. In the absence of a Supreme Court decision that clearly guides administrators as to when a school may regulate online, off-campus speech, they understandably struggle with trying to balance student…
Find out more »February 2016
Transitioning schools: Best practices for supporting transgender students and creating safer schools
A 2-hour workshop taught by Claire J. Porter, JD., M.Ed. Register Overview Students who identify as transgendered, or are perceived as gender non-conforming, are often the targets of harassment and bullying in schools and have associated academic and personal challenges to face. Administrators need practical guidance and tools to support transgendered students in school. Our workshop will focus on providing administrators the needed framework for understanding and meeting the needs of transgendered students with teachers and staff, discuss federal and state…
Find out more »March 2016
Basics of multilevel modeling: handling grouped data in research and evaluation
A 6-hour workshop taught by Paul D. Umbach, Ph.D. Register Overview This workshop provides the basics multilevel modeling, focusing on practical applications rather than statistical theory. Researchers and evaluators from a range disciplines often collect data that have a hierarchical structure. Students are nested within schools (and/or classrooms), employees are nested within firms, and multiple test scores are nested within students. One consequence of this nested structure is that observations not statistically independent, thus violating a basic assumption of standard analytical techniques. Ignoring the nesting effect…
Find out more »Increasing web survey response rates: What works?
Register A 4-hour workshop taught by Paul D. Umbach, Ph.D. Overview Are you getting low response rates when you conduct web surveys? This workshop provides valuable information about how to increase web survey response rates. The purpose of this class is to arm you with the knowledge and range of techniques researchers suggest increase web survey response rates. We examine the heuristics people use when deciding to participate in a survey and answer survey questions and explore ways to increase the likelihood…
Find out more »June 2016
Introduction to data management and analysis using Stata
Register A 6-hour workshop taught by Ozan Jaquette, Ph.D. Overview Most quantitative methods courses teach students how to analyze datasets that are ready for analysis. In real world, creating the analysis datasets is often more time consuming and challenging than conducting analyses. The purpose of this workshop is to introduce participants to the core data management skills necessary for creating analysis datasets. These skills will help researchers save time while increasing data quality. The workshop uses Stata, which offers an excellent…
Find out more »February 2017
Exploring the power of predictive analytics: A step-by-step introduction to building a student-at-risk prediction model
A 5-hour workshop taught by Serge Herzog, Ph.D. Register Overview The purpose of this workshop is to teach institutional research, assessment, and evaluation professionals how to effectively build and implement a predictive model to identify students at risk of dropping out using standard regression methods with SPSS. Instruction will be delivered in a hands-on format, offering an interactive step-by-step model-building process that allows participants to develop their own prediction model, using preloaded data that mimics information available with the typical college enrollment…
Find out more »June 2017
Basics of multilevel modeling: Handling grouped data in research and evaluation
A 6-hour workshop taught by Paul D. Umbach, Ph.D. Register Overview This workshop provides the basics multilevel modeling, focusing on practical applications rather than statistical theory. Researchers and evaluators from a range disciplines often collect data that have a hierarchical structure. Students are nested within schools (and/or classrooms), employees are nested within firms, and multiple test scores are nested within students. One consequence of this nested structure is that observations not statistically independent, thus violating a basic assumption of standard analytical techniques. Ignoring the nesting effect…
Find out more »September 2017
Factor analysis using SPSS
A 4-hour workshop taught by Mary Ann Coughlin, D.P.E. Register Overview Factor analysis is a statistical technique commonly used to establish evidence of survey instrument validity. Exploratory factor analysis explores the relationships among variables to discover if those variables can be grouped into a smaller set of underlying factors. Often researchers and applied practitioners are faced with the difficult task of summarizing numerous variables from a survey and want to reduce the data into a smaller set of factors. The workshop will…
Find out more »October 2017
Handling missing data: Multiple imputation for the applied researcher
A 4-hour workshop taught by Ryan S. Wells, Ph.D. You may also be interested in our increasing web survey response rates workshop. Register Overview Item-missing data is a serious concern for any quantitative researcher. Survey participants regularly skip questions, and administrative data is often incomplete. But what do to about this issue is not always straightforward. Researchers often analyze only complete cases (listwise deletion) or they impute missing information using means or regression analysis. These approaches can lead to biased estimates and artificially small standard…
Find out more »December 2017
Focus groups for qualitative research and program evaluation
A 6-hour workshop taught by Julie Posselt, Ph.D. Register Overview Focus groups are ideally suited to gather individual perspectives and explore areas of shared and divergent understanding in a structured format. Lessons learned through focus group can provide a useful complement to other types of data in mixed and multiple method projects. More than nice conversations, they present unique design, logistic, analytic, and ethical challenges that warrant careful consideration before jumping in. This six-hour workshop situates focus groups within a broader…
Find out more »February 2018
Increasing web survey response rates: What works?
A 4-hour workshop taught by Paul D. Umbach, Ph.D. Register Overview Are you getting low response rates when you conduct web surveys? This workshop provides valuable information about how to increase web survey response rates. The purpose of this class is to arm you with the knowledge and range of techniques researchers suggest increase web survey response rates. We examine the heuristics people use when deciding to participate in a survey and answer survey questions and explore ways to increase the likelihood…
Find out more »March 2018
Introduction to matching and propensity score analysis
A 6-hour workshop taught by Stephen R. Porter, Ph.D. You may also be interested in our introduction to binary logistic regression class. Register Overview Propensity score analysis (also known as “matching”) is a popular way to estimate the effects of programs and policies on outcomes. Yet researchers face a dizzying array of choices, in terms of particular matching techniques to use, as well as many different options for implementing a specific technique. This workshop provides a concise introduction to matching for the…
Find out more »Writing and evaluating good survey questions
A 4-hour workshop taught by Paul D. Umbach, Ph.D. Register Overview Writing good survey questions can be very difficult. This workshop will give participants a solid practical foundation in how to write good survey questions. The purpose of this workshop is to arm you with the knowledge to develop valid and reliable questionnaires by looking at approaches for developing survey questions and methods for evaluating them. As survey researchers, it is difficult to be certain that respondents interpret your questions exactly as you…
Find out more »September 2018
Introduction to experimental methods in the social & behavioral sciences
A 4-hour workshop taught by Dr. S. Michael Gaddis, Ph.D. Register Overview During the past decade, experiments in the social and behavioral sciences have gained in popularity as the internet has made implementing experiments easier, cheaper, and faster. However, although researchers may have a conceptual knowledge of how experiments work, the actual experience of implementing an experiment for the first time is often frustrating and time consuming. Researchers without prior experience often struggle with a number of issues such as navigating…
Find out more »Mixed methods for research and evaluation designs
A 4-hour workshop taught by Julie Posselt, Ph.D. Register Overview Many research and evaluation agendas can be strengthened through the use of multiple types of data and/or research methods. Different data types make possible different types of inferences. By juxtaposing and mixing them, we can obtain a more comprehensive picture of the phenomena we study and programs we want to improve. This four-hour workshop will equip you with both the perspective to appreciate the possibilities and limits of mixed methods research…
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