Research Apprenticeship Course (RAC)
Each quarter we have a Research Apprenticeship Course (pronounced "rack") for our Phd fellows and invited guests. It provides an ideal audience and informal structure for our fellows, professors and affiliated faculty to present, discuss and analyze their research topics!
RAC 288/Section 15 -- Fall '09
October 2nd. This RAC introduced our four new students, final decisions made about RAC topics, etc and other admin issues were dicussed.
October 16th. This RAC is cancelled. Students and faculty attending the Jack McArdle's talk at NPI instead.
October 30th. AQM fellows Jordan Rickles is presenting his paper and Mark Hansen is discussing IRT.
Mark Hansen presentation topic: "Uncertainty in item parameter estimates in Item Response Theory."
We'll discuss the paper by Mislevy (1994) et al. and the paper by Tsutakawa & Johnson (1990) and Hanen's paper of his powerpoint. Some background discussion on item parameters and why should we care how much uncertainty there is in the estimates of them. And ways of handling parameter uncertainty.
Jordan Rickles paper topic: "Revisiting the Analysis of Early Access to Algebra under the Counterfactual Framework." Draft.
November 13th. AQM Fellow Johnny Lin (Psychology) & KC Choi lead the RAC.
AQM Fellow, Johnny Lin, presentation topic: "Implementation of the Liu Chi-Square Statistic in EQS" Here is some background on the topic.
KC Choi topic: "Powersource formative assessment effects: statistical modeling of Between-school and within-school designs." Here is a poster background.
December 4:
RAC lead by Prof Rashmita Mistry (Education / Psychological Studies) & Prof Meredith Phillips (Public Policy / Sociology)
In Spring 2010...February 12, 2010 RAC lead by Prof Jim Stigler (Psychology)
RAC Archives...
Spring 2009 RAC 288/25
June 5, 2009 RAC. The last meeing of RAC of Spring Quarter.
Summary: This week's RAC will be spent on our PhD fellow's portfolios and the other half of the class will be spent discussing the IES Washington, DC June 7-9th conference papers that are being presented by some of our fellows.
May 22, 2009 RAC lead by Prof Jennifer Krull (Psychology):
Summary: Empirical Bayesian Estimates in Multilevel Models (The Secret Life of β’s)
View the paper: Email the program coordinator for a copy
April 24, 2009 RAC lead by Prof Mike Seltzer (Education):
Summary: We will discuss reliability in the context of multilevel modeling.
View the paper: Email the program coordinator for a copy
April 10, 2009 RAC lead by Prof Li Cai (Edu/Psych):
Summary: We will discuss IRT-based methods for quantifying reliability and measurement error from a book chapter in Computerized Adaptive Testing, A Primer, 2nd edition...
View the paper: Item Response Theory, Item Calibration and Proficiency Estimation By Wainer and Mislevy (2000)
RAC 288/Section 25 -- Winter '09
March 6, 2009 RAC lead by Prof Felipe Martinez (Education):
We will discuss Cortina (1993) and Brennan (2000); as Jitsma and Bentler last week, Cortina examines the different interpretations offered for what alpha means, and how these are tied (or not) to notions of reliability and homogeneity; Brennan takes a broader look at the conceptual and technical dimension of reliability and how these are accommodated (or not) it by modern and traditional psychometric models. I think these two complement last week's [RAC] discussion quite nicely both technically and conceptually.
View these papers:
1. What is the coefficent alpha? By Cortina (1993)
2. An Essay on the History and Future of Reliability... By Brennan (2000)
February 20, 2009 RAC lead by Prof Peter Bentler (Pscyhology):
In addition to an update from [PhD fellow] Mark Hansen on his research, we will hear about and discuss Peter Bentler's Psychometrika paper on internal consistency reliability.
View these papers:
1. Alpha Dimension-free psychometrika... By Bentler (2008)
2. Covariance Structure Models... By Bentler (2007)
January 9, 2009 RAC lead by AQM Fellows:
PhD students Hansen, Rickles, Lin, Tessler, Richter, Preston and Thomas presented some preliminary findings on their current research in the RAC 288, Sec 25 course this week. AQM core faculty: Professors Webb, Seltzer, Martinez, Cai, Bentler and Reise were present to listen to and discuss the presentations.
View their papers: http://uclaaqm.blogspot.com/