FACULTY

Contact Information

lstaplet@umbc.edu

Lab:
Sondheim Hall 412
p.410-455-3705

Status:

Not accepting students for Fall 2011

Laura Stapleton, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Education

Area of Study

Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation

Research Interests

Dr. Laura Stapleton’s research interest is in the collection and statistical modeling of survey data. Often in program evaluation and research (correlational and experimental), surveys or questionnaires are used to collect data about a person’s feelings, knowledge, or behaviors.  Her line of research examines both questionnaire item development (how do we know if the person is answering the way we think they should?) and the problems in using traditional statistical analysis when the respondents to the survey are not the product of a simple random sampling procedure. She has authored book chapters on using National Center for Education Statistics datasets for multilevel modeling and on analyzing data from complex sampling designs. She is currently undertaking research examining how to account for complex sampling designs in structural equation modeling and how to model assuming population heterogeneity (mixture modeling). Planned research includes assessing children’s abilities to understand questionnaire items. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Educational Psychology.

Selected Publications

Stapleton, L. M., Cafarelli, M., Almario, M., & Ching, T. (2010). Prevalence and characteristics of student attitude surveys used in public elementary schools in the United States. Practical Assessment Research and Evaluation, 15, 9. Retrieved from http://pareonline.net/pdf/v15n9.pdf.

Stapleton, L. M. (2010).  Survey sampling design and analysis.  In G. R. Hancock, & R. Mueller (Eds.), The Reviewer’s Guide to Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (pp. 397-411). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.  

Hancock, G. R., Stapleton, L. M., & Arnold-Berkovits, I. (2009). The tenuousness of invariance tests within multisample covariance and mean structure models. In T. Teo & M. S. Khine (Eds.). Structural Equation Modeling: Concepts and Applications in Educational Research (pp. 137-174). Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Stapleton, L. M. (2008). Variance estimation using replication methods in structural equation modeling with complex sample data. Structural Equation Modeling, 15, 183-210.

Pituch, K. A., & Stapleton, L. M. (2008). The performance of methods to test upper-level mediation in the presence of nonnormal data. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 43, 237-267.

Allua, S., Stapleton, L. M., & Beretvas, S. N. (2008). Testing latent mean differences between observed and unobserved groups using multilevel factor mixture models. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 68, 357-378.

Stapleton, L. M., & Thomas, S. L. (2008).  Sources and issues in the use of national datasets for pedagogy and research.  In A. O’Connell, & B. McCoach (Eds).  Multilevel Analysis of Educational Data (pp. 11-57).  Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Stapleton, L. M. (2008).  Analyzing data from complex surveys.  In J. Hox, E. de Leeuw,  & D. Dillman,  (Eds.).  International Handbook of Survey Methodology (pp. 342-369).  New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Stapleton, L. M., Sander, J. B., & Stark, K. R. (2007). Psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory for youth in a sample of girls.  Psychological Assessment, 19, 230-235.

Stapleton, L. M. (2006).  An assessment of practical solutions for structural equation modeling with complex sample data.  Structural Equation Modeling, 13, 28-58.