With a new year comes a new program in the FSU College of Education. We’re excited to announce that our highly ranked Measurement & Statistics program is now offering an online master’s degree!
While FSU’s Measurement & Statistics program has existed since 1995, the new online master’s option was designed to meet the needs of working professionals and students looking for a more flexible route to pursuing a graduate degree. Our online offerings combine both synchronous and asynchronous courses to meet students’ varied schedules.
The online master’s in Measurement & Statistics is designed for students and professionals in education and other social science fields who are interested in the quantitative analysis of educational and social data. Students will complete coursework in three domains: general research methods, measurement/psychometrics, and statistical analysis. The program consists of a core sequence in basic statistics and research methods followed by more intensive work in both measurement (design and scoring of tests and questionnaires) and statistics (analysis of data), for a total of 30 credit hours.
Skills in quantitative analysis are more and more in demand in a variety of fields. Quantitative analysis is incredibly important, especially when it comes to big data. FSU’s program in Measurement & Statistics prepares students to become leaders in educational research and develop competencies in handling the ever-changing landscape of student assessment.
“People with limited training in data analytics are sometimes internally promoted to positions requiring analysis of educational data, or such data responsibilities are added to their job responsibilities,” said Yanyun Yang, professor and coordinator of FSU’s Measurement & Statistics program. “Our online master’s degree can provide working professionals further training to go with their new responsibilities. The online format would not require them to move to Tallahassee to take advantage of the program.”
Students in the program will learn a wide range of analytic approaches applicable to assessments and outcome data at all levels. Educational data range from student test-item responses and summary scores, to teacher performance measures, to school, district and state performance information. Students will be prepared to develop measurement instruments such as tests and scales that can help schools and other social agencies evaluate educational progress and/or the viability of interventions. The program also covers the analysis of educational data, from simpler analyses to those that address the hierarchical and longitudinal nature of data in schools.
Although the focus is on education, many of the measurement and statistical tools that students will learn transfer to related social science disciplines, such as psychology, communications, linguistics, nursing, public policy and social work.
Graduates of FSU’s Measurement & Statistics program have gone on to positions as data analysts at Florida Department of Education, testing companies, and universities, as well as evaluators in PK-12 school systems. Our master’s graduates are also highly qualified to move into doctoral programs in measurement and quantitative methods, evaluation and institutional research, or broader education, medicine or social science fields.
To learn more about our online master’s in Measurement & Statistics, including admission requirements and application deadlines, please visit https://education.fsu.edu/measurement-and-statistics.
