43.013 - PDC24: Survey Design and Validation

Session Type: Professional Development Course

Abstract

Surveys are commonly used in educational research. Survey data contribute to education theory development and support evidence-based policy decisions. This course provides a primer on survey development and the use of factor analysis to validate surveys. The workshop is intended for educators (including administrators) and researchers at all levels- from novice to more experienced, who are either developing, implementing, or contemplating the use of questionnaires for research, program evaluation or educational purposes.
This course expounds on exploratory factor analysis as a crucial tool in the instrument validation process and introduces learners to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Specifically, the latter addresses how to use CFA to assess whether the survey is operating equivalently in different demographic groups (measurement invariance). CFA is particularly important because it facilitates analyses to ensure that items in research surveys are understood/ interpreted the same way by respondents from diverse populations. Incorporating these analyses in the validation phase helps to minimize the risk that the construct being assessed is not the same across diverse groups, which could negatively impact validity of any inferences made about group differences on the construct under investigation.
The course includes interactive presentations, small-group activities to practice skills, useful resource materials, and time for discussion with the instructor. Most analyses will be conducted in SPSS. Syntax for conducting similar analyses in Stata will be provided. CFA will be introduced in AMOS and Stata. SPSS datasets will be provided by the instructor. Attendees will require a laptop with SPSS or Stata

Sub Unit

• Professional Development and Training Committee

Director

• Katherine Picho, Howard University

Instructor

• Emmanuel Sikali, U.S. Department of Education