Where can I find forums for researchers in Education policy and metrics?
December 18, 2015 6:42 AM Subscribe
I'm trying to identify possible online forums where social scientists--and in particular those interested in education policy and education assessment metrics--gather together and provide a support community regarding projects, answer questions, and offer suggestions about possible research approaches to take in answering questions. It could be associated with a particular university or it could be broader in reach and scope.
The closest group I've found that fits these criteria is the Research, Methodology, and Statistics in the Science Sciences group in LinkedIn. This group is great and I am trying to identify other possible online forums like this where researchers in education or in similar fields talk with each other regarding questions or problems with the projects they are working on.
As an aside, the reason for my interest in this question is because I've found a ton of help in online forums for people working in R, for individuals working on questions and problems in StackOverflow as well as other forums that have come to my attention. I'd love to join a community of like-minded academic or non-academic researchers and advisers in the field of education public policy and educational metrics.
The closest group I've found that fits these criteria is the Research, Methodology, and Statistics in the Science Sciences group in LinkedIn. This group is great and I am trying to identify other possible online forums like this where researchers in education or in similar fields talk with each other regarding questions or problems with the projects they are working on.
As an aside, the reason for my interest in this question is because I've found a ton of help in online forums for people working in R, for individuals working on questions and problems in StackOverflow as well as other forums that have come to my attention. I'd love to join a community of like-minded academic or non-academic researchers and advisers in the field of education public policy and educational metrics.
This is not my impression of how academia works. “offering suggestions about possible research approaches” means co-authoring an academic paper together. You could probably try reaching out to specific researchers directly with questions about their research. In time, you might be able to develop a mentoring or even a collaborative relationship. Some universities have “institutes” that publish research reports, if you don’t know where to start. Try Kansas, Rutgers, Boston College.
LinkedIn has an “Educational and Psychological Measurement” group, a “measurement and research methodology” group, a “Psychometric Testing and Assessment Discussion” group which might also point you in the right direction.
One more thought - the fields you’re asking about are bound to be small, and what they study is highly politicized. I'm not surprised you cannot find fora about these topics, as presumably the researchers in these fields are not too open to shooting the (professional) breeze on the internet.
posted by Dotty at 1:41 PM on December 18, 2015
LinkedIn has an “Educational and Psychological Measurement” group, a “measurement and research methodology” group, a “Psychometric Testing and Assessment Discussion” group which might also point you in the right direction.
One more thought - the fields you’re asking about are bound to be small, and what they study is highly politicized. I'm not surprised you cannot find fora about these topics, as presumably the researchers in these fields are not too open to shooting the (professional) breeze on the internet.
posted by Dotty at 1:41 PM on December 18, 2015
Response by poster: Thank you Dotty for your suggestions. I have duly joined the groups and will look forward to participating. Regarding the academia and the politicization of education, I completely understand the sentiment and why they would be less than willing to discuss some of the research they were doing in especially transparent, straight-shooting manner. My interest is more technical, such as seeing if they can nudge me toward certain books, textbooks, or articles that would guide my own research.
For example: I have a data set of of students taking various fairly expensive standardized exams [exam A and Exam B, say] If a student takes Exam A, he does not take Exam B, or vice versa. . I'd like to see how well correlated these exams are with each other and which is one a better predictor at how students do on an a single end-of-the year exam that the state makes and gives to every single student. There are models that do this sort of thing. Google-fu, NBER scouring, reading through Google Books and Econometric textbooks can only do so much if someone can't tell you that a researcher has done similar to this.
Note the example I gave is a fairly simple one and I am sure I can handle it but there are more complicated ones that I am certain will come up.
Again thanks to everyone who has chimed in.
posted by caudal at 6:41 PM on December 19, 2015
For example: I have a data set of of students taking various fairly expensive standardized exams [exam A and Exam B, say] If a student takes Exam A, he does not take Exam B, or vice versa. . I'd like to see how well correlated these exams are with each other and which is one a better predictor at how students do on an a single end-of-the year exam that the state makes and gives to every single student. There are models that do this sort of thing. Google-fu, NBER scouring, reading through Google Books and Econometric textbooks can only do so much if someone can't tell you that a researcher has done similar to this.
Note the example I gave is a fairly simple one and I am sure I can handle it but there are more complicated ones that I am certain will come up.
Again thanks to everyone who has chimed in.
posted by caudal at 6:41 PM on December 19, 2015
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posted by Young Kullervo at 7:13 AM on December 18, 2015