COLLEGE PARK, MD (September, 2014) This November, the Center for Integrated Latent Variable Research, an affiliate of the College's Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation (EDMS) program, will host an academic conference on "Advances in Multilevel Modeling for Educational Research: Addressing Practical Issues Found in Real-Applications." Organized by EDMS faculty members Dr. Laura Stapleton and Dr. Jeff Harring with Dr. Natasha Beretvas of the University of Texas at Austin, as of press time the conference has obtained sponsorship from the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology and from Optimal Solutions Group LLC, an economic and policy analysis research and consulting firm based in College Park.
Multilevel modeling has become increasingly popular among educational practitioners and researchers as a way to account for nested sampling designs that often accompany data collection in classrooms, schools, and districts. While researchers have successfully used the basic model and developed sophistications, methodological progress must be sustained in order to keep up with the variety of complex conditions found in practice. This conference will bring together prominent quantitative scholars whose research advances state-of-the-art multilevel modeling and addresses current dilemmas in the field.
The conference's keynote speaker will be Dr. Sophia Rabe-Hesketh, Professor of Educational Statistics and Biostatistics at the University of California, Berkeley. Presenters will arrive from universities throughout the United States and from as far away as Utretch University in the Netherlands. In addition to Drs. Stapleton and Harring, contributors from the College of Education will include faculty members Drs. Ji Seung Yang, Hong Jiao, and Tracy Sweet, as well as Dr. Chao Xie, a graduate of the EDMS Ph.D. program who is now a psychometrician in the assessment program at American Institutes for Research.
The conference will be held Friday and Saturday, November 14-15, in the Colony Ballroom at Stamp Student Union on the University of Maryland campus. A day-long pre-conference workshop on cross-classified modeling directed by Dr. Beretvas will take place on Thursday, November 13. A reception will also be held that Friday evening in the Stamp Atrium.
Click here to learn more about the conference.
Click here to learn more about the Center for Integrated Latent Variable Research (CILVR).
Dr. Laura Stapleton is an associate professor in the Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation program in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. Her work looks at analysis of survey data obtained under complex sampling designs and multilevel latent variable models, including tests of mediation within a multilevel framework.
Dr. Jeffrey Harring is an associate professor in the Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation program in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. His research focuses on applications of statistical models for repeated measures data, nonlinear structural equation models, and statistical computing.
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