PSY 883: Statistics for Evaluators I

Course Description

Students in this course will learn about quantitative statistics, data management, and data analysis in an evaluation context. This course will focus specifically on foundational descriptive statistics and their applications and limitations in program evaluation. Students will also receive an introduction to the logic of inferential statistics, and their applications in evaluation. Student will build practical skills in conducting, interpreting, and reporting corresponding quantitative data analyses, in a widely used statistical software program (SPSS).

By the end of the semester, students will be able to:

1. Describe the logic, limitations, and application of descriptive and inferential statistics in an evaluation context
2. Given a quantitative evaluation, identify which descriptive and inferential statistics should be used
3. Given quantitative evaluation data, create an SPSS database and codebook and enter, clean, and manage data in SPSS
4. Given a quantitative evaluation, identify which descriptive statistics should be used; obtain said statistics from SPSS, interpret, and write-up results for an evaluation report
5. Identify specific evaluation contexts in which you would use bivariate correlations and multiple regression, and conduct bivariate correlation and multiple regression in SPSS
6. Interpret and describe the results of bivariate correlation and multiple regression in SPSS for an evaluation report

Related Faculty

Marisa Beeble, Ph.D.