Regression discontinuity (RD) designs are increasingly used for causal evaluations. However, the literature contains little guidance for conducting a moderation analysis within an RDD context. The current article focuses on moderation with a single binary variable. A simulation study compares: (1) different bandwidth selectors and (2) local…

The random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RICLPM) decomposes longitudinal associations between two processes X and Y into stable between-person associations and temporal within-person changes. In a recent study, Bailey et al. demonstrated through a simulation study that the between-person variance components in the RICLPM can occur only due…

Sociologists increasingly face choices among competing algorithms that represent reasonable approaches to the same task, with little guidance in choosing among them. We develop a strategy that uses simulated data to identify the conditions under which different methods perform well and applies what is learned from the simulations to predict which…

Cluster-randomized trials have been widely used to evaluate the treatment effects of interventions on student outcomes. When interventions are implemented by teachers, researchers need to account for the nested structure in schools (i.e., students are nested within teachers nested within schools). Schools usually have a very limited number of…

Based on a brief analysis of the current situation of university education management and research on intelligent algorithms, this article constructs a university education management system based on big data. For the clustering and prediction modules in higher education management, corresponding algorithms are used for optimization design. A…

In this article, I present a new multivariate regression model for analyzing outcomes with network dependence. The model is capable to account for two types of outcome dependence including the mean dependence that allows the outcome to depend on selected features of a known dependence network and the error dependence that allows the outcome to be…

Background: For randomized trials that use text as an outcome, traditional approaches for assessing treatment impact require each document first be manually coded for constructs of interest by trained human raters. These hand-coded scores are then used as a measured outcome for an impact analysis, with the average scores of the treatment group…

Hierarchical data is often observed in education data. Analyzing such data with Multilevel Modeling becomes crucial to understanding the relationship at the individual and group levels. However, one of the most significant problems with this kind of data is small sample sizes and very low Intraclass Correlations. The multivariate Latent Covariate…

Cluster memberships associated with the mediation effect are often changed due to the temporal distance between the cause-and-effect variables in longitudinal data. Nevertheless, current practices in multilevel mediation analysis mostly assume a purely hierarchical data structure. A Monte Carlo simulation study is conducted to examine the…

Within-cluster variance homogeneity is one of the key assumptions of multilevel models; however, assuming a constant (i.e. equal) within-cluster variance may not be realistic. Moreover, existent within-cluster variance heterogeneity should be regarded as a source of additional information rather than a violation of a model assumption. This study…

Multiple imputation (MI) is a popular method for handling missing data. In education research, it can be challenging to use MI because the data often have a clustered structure that need to be accommodated during MI. Although much research has considered applications of MI in hierarchical data, little is known about its use in cross-classified…

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate clustering methods within a functional data analysis (FDA) framework for identifying subgroups of individuals that may be exhibiting categories of misfit. Person response functions (PRFs) estimated within a FDA framework (FDA-PRFs) provide graphical displays that can aid in the identification of persons…

We consider Bayesian estimation of a hierarchical linear model (HLM) from small sample sizes. The continuous response Y and covariates C are partially observed and assumed missing at random. With C having linear effects, the HLM may be efficiently estimated by available methods. When C includes cluster-level covariates having interactive or other…

Multilevel latent class analysis (MLCA) has been increasingly used to investigate unobserved population heterogeneity while taking into account data dependency. Nonparametric MLCA has gained much popularity due to the advantage of classifying both individuals and clusters into latent classes. This study demonstrated the need to relax the…

Advancements in item response theory (IRT) have led to models for dual dependence, which control for cluster and method effects during a psychometric analysis. Currently, however, this class of models does not include one that controls for when the method effects stem from two method sources in which one source functions differently across the…