PROC UNIVARIATE is for numeric data. I use it a lot of times as the first step in my categorical data analyses. How weird is that? Okay, well, maybe it’s not leafy sea dragon level of strange but it does seem an odd thing to do. After all, much of the output that PROC UNIVARIATE…
Today, taking a break from writing the grant proposal that has no end, I found myself thinking about easy ways to explain and understand standard error. To understand standard error, you have to have some statistic that you’re discussing the standard error of. As a random example, let’s just take the mean. T-TEST PROCEDURE FOR…
The census now allows more than one race to be checked. For many years, friends of mine in inter-racial couples when they registered their children for school would check the “Other” box for race, rather than pick black or white. Although an individual’s census form responses are confidential, you certainly are free to tell anyone…
I’ve forgotten more about statistical software than you’ll ever know! I don’t know why people ever say this in a bragging tone because I consider that to be my problem. I’ve forgotten it. Today, I needed to do a confirmatory factor analysis with someone using AMOS. They wanted it in AMOS so that is what…
When people ask me what type of statistical software to use, I run through the advantages and disadvantages, but always conclude, “Of course, whatever you choose is going to give you the same results. It’s not as if you’re going to get a F-value of 67.24 with SAS and one of 2.08 with Stata. Your…
What must everyone know and why must everyone know that? This was one of the two central questions in Dr. J.T. Dillon’s course on Curriculum and Instruction, which I thought was going to be a colossal waste of time. After all, I was going to be a statistician, why would I need a course on…
I’m working on the SAS Naked Mole Rat book and was writing about residual variance. It occurred to me that I just threw in a chart and assumed that people would know what residual variance was and moved right along. This reminds me of the time the rocket scientist had a sign outside of his…
Before we went to Arlington, VA to get our hands on the National Indian Education Study , my colleague, Dr. Erich Longie, hypothesized that schools that had more cultural activities would have lower academic achievement. In addition to being an old friend, Dr. Longie is president of Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. , a published author…
Any time you add another layer of complexity you better have a damn good reason. I’m often skeptical of proponents of both Item Response Theory and multiple imputation procedures, not because either IRT or MI is a bad thing in itself but because its inclusion makes data analysis and reporting more complicated. At the National…
I’m currently at a seminar in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics. I’ve seen the notices for these a lot of times over the years, and always thought, “Well, that looks interesting” but never applied to go, primarily because although your expenses are paid, there is no stipend, so that is…