FCAP Conference 2008 - REGISTRATION REMINDER

Fordham Council on Applied Psychometrics (FCAP)

Conference & Workshops

Bronx , New York

June 25-27, 2008

***REMINDER: Advance registration closes June 2***

Please visit www.fordham.edu/fcap/conference to register for the conference, workshops, and on-campus accommodations.

CONFERENCE - June 26-27

Theme: Psychometrics: Applications, Training and the Need for Expertise

--Plenary speeches will be theme-based talks addressing the field of psychometrics and the current problems it faces.

--Paper and posters sessions on a variety of psychometric topics (see website for full conference program)

--Evening Reception – June 26

--Undergraduate student statistics information session – June 25

PLENARY SPEAKERS

Paul Holland, Ph.D., Educational Testing Service, retired

David Rindskopf, Ph.D., City University of New York

Charles Lewis, Ph.D., Fordham University

Michael Edwards, Ph.D., The Ohio State University

WORKSHOPS - June 25

An Introduction to SAS

Host: Wendi Wright, CTB/McGraw Hill

Full-day Session (9AM - 6PM)

Fee: $100

The Introduction to SAS workshop will cover the basics for beginners. The workshop will follow Ron Cody's book - Learning SAS by Example.

The first half of the class will cover topics involved with Data Step

Processing:

· Introduction to SAS variable names and datasets, how SAS thinks, and a first program

·   Reading raw data from external files

·   Reading raw data from Excel

·   Creating and Accessing permanent SAS datasets and how to get information about the stored files

·   Creating formats and labels

·   Conditional and Iterative Processing (If, Select, Where, and Do statements)

·   Using Dates in SAS

·   Subsetting and Combining SAS datasets (Set, Merge)

·   Functions

·   Arrays

The second half of the workshop will focus on Presenting and Summarizing Your Data:

· Proc Print

·   Proc Report

·   Proc Freq

·   Proc Means

·   Proc Tabulate

·   ODS

·   Proc GChart/GPlot

An introduction to macros and SQL will be included if there is time at the end of the class.

An Introduction to R

Host: Keith Markus, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Session I (9AM - 1PM)

This workshop will provide a general introduction to R that does not presuppose any prior familiarity with R. Topics will include installing R, the R environment, R preferences, R help and documentation, reading and writing data, creating and manipulating R objects, indexing complex R objects, working with data frames, statistical functions, descriptive statistics, simple graphs, classical statistics, and fitting general linear models, as time permits.

Advanced Statistical Analyses in R

Host: Keith Markus, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Session II (2PM - 6PM)

This workshop will have two parts. The first part will explore R graphics in greater detail, building on the material covered in Workshop I. This will include using external syntax files to create complex graphs, and writing ad hoc R functions to create graphs. The second part will survey some of the packages available in R for estimating modern statistical models such as item response theory models, structural equation models, latent class models, and linear random coefficient models, as time permits.

This workshop will presuppose familiarity with R basics covered in the first workshop and some prior familiarity with the models discussed in the second half although prior facility with each of these models is not required.

**Notes:

(1) If you enroll in one R Workshop session the fee is $75. If you enroll is both sessions, the fee is $100.

(2) Workshop registrants do not have to attend or pay conference registration fees.