Welcome to aea365! Please take a moment to review our new community guidelines. Learn More.

Quantitative Methods: Theory and Design

Analyzing surveys with complex sampling designs? There’s an R package for that! By Monique Farone

Hi there! I’m Monique Farone (@moniquefarone), an internal evaluator at a local health department just outside Atlanta. At the 2018 American Public Health Association annual meeting, I presented a poster that examined data from our local Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) – data that I miraculously analyzed using R. I say that because I’m new …

Analyzing surveys with complex sampling designs? There’s an R package for that! By Monique Farone Read More »

To Midpoint or Not to Midpoint: That is the Question by David Bernstein

I am David Bernstein, owner of DJB Evaluation Consulting and Director of Evaluation for the General Commission on Religion and Race of the United Methodist Church. There is a long running debate among Springsteen fans regarding whether Mary’s dress “waves” or “sways” in the song Thunder Road (1975, Born to Run). For many years, I …

To Midpoint or Not to Midpoint: That is the Question by David Bernstein Read More »

Data Analysis Basics – Part II Judy Savageau

Hello! I’m Judy Savageau from the Center for Health Policy and Research at UMass Medical School following up on yesterday’s post with Part II of basic data analyses. A number of posts outlining statistical/analytic details are in AEA365’s archives. For example, there are some great posts on “Readings for Numbers People (or Those Who Wish …

Data Analysis Basics – Part II Judy Savageau Read More »

Data Analysis Basics – Part I by Judy Savageau

Hello! I’m Judy Savageau from the Center for Health Policy and Research  at UMass Medical School. A recent post from Pei-Pei Lei, my colleague in our Office of Survey Research, introduced some options for statistical programming in R. I wondered whether a basic introduction to statistics might be in order for those contemplating ‘where do …

Data Analysis Basics – Part I by Judy Savageau Read More »

Labor Day Week: Cleaning Up Data: Turning the Dirt by Samantha Theriault

My name is Samantha Theriault, and I am the Research Assistant at Randi Korn & Associates (RK&A), a research, evaluation and intentional planning company that specializes in museums and informal learning. Lesson Learned: As a research assistant, I spend much of my time entering and processing data.  Data entry and clean-up is time consuming and …

Labor Day Week: Cleaning Up Data: Turning the Dirt by Samantha Theriault Read More »

Is R right for you? If yes… by Pei-Pei Lei

Greetings AEA community, I’m Pei-Pei Lei, a biostatistician in the Office of Survey Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Have you been looking to expand your skill set in statistical programming? Have you wondered if R is the appropriate statistical software package for your needs? The purpose of this post is to help …

Is R right for you? If yes… by Pei-Pei Lei Read More »

Lisa Holliday and Olivia Stevenson on R the Easy Way: Rcmdr

We are Lisa Holliday and Olivia Stevenson. We are data architects with The Evaluation Group where we have recently begun to transition to R for data analysis.  R is a free program for statistical analysis that is powerful, but can have a steep learning curve if you want to utilize its scripting capabilities. Is R …

Lisa Holliday and Olivia Stevenson on R the Easy Way: Rcmdr Read More »

Pei-Pei Lei and Carla Hillerns on the Beauty of Banner Tables

Hi, we are Pei-Pei Lei and Carla Hillerns from the Office of Survey Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Center of Healthcare Policy and Research. The other day, we asked each other what one analysis tool is most vital to our quantitative survey work. We agreed on the answer – a banner table. …

Pei-Pei Lei and Carla Hillerns on the Beauty of Banner Tables Read More »

Ama Nyame-Mensah on Using & Constructing Likert Scales In Evaluation Research

My name is Ama Nyame-Mensah, and I am a doctoral student in the Social Welfare program at the University of Pennsylvania. Likert scales are commonly used in program evaluation. However, despite their widespread popularity, Likert scales are often misused and poorly constructed, which can result in misleading evaluation outcomes. Consider the following tips when using …

Ama Nyame-Mensah on Using & Constructing Likert Scales In Evaluation Research Read More »

Spectra Myers on Simplifying Data Analysis

My name is Spectra Myers, and I am a graduate student at the University of Minnesota’s Organizational Leadership Policy and Development working on a Masters in Evaluation Studies. I have been working closely with a Minneapolis agency addressing homelessness among youth on a service evaluation. The project included fielding a paper survey, data entry and …

Spectra Myers on Simplifying Data Analysis Read More »