Quantitative Methods: Theory and Design
Steven Pierce, PhD (he/him/his)
Associate Director
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan, United States
Location: Grand Ballroom 9
This intermediate session will demonstrate the use of equivalence tests, which are statistical methods designed to use the evidence in the data to explicitly prove that two groups are equivalent on some outcome measure. This contrasts with the goal of classical statistical methods (e.g., t-tests, chi-square tests, etc.), which aim to use the data to prove that two groups differ from one another. The session will explain what kinds of evaluation questions equivalence tests can answer, how these tests work, and why they provide more credible evidence of equivalence than offered by simply finding a non-significant effect with a classical method. The session will offer practical advice on how and when to use equivalence tests in your evaluation work. Because equivalence tests are rarely covered in basic graduate level statistics courses, this session aims to provide the audience with a user-friendly introduction to new statistical methods.