merTools is an R package that is designed to make working with multilevel models from lme4, particularly large models with many random effects, fast and easy. With merTools you can generate prediction intervals that incorporate various components of uncertainty (fixed effect, random effect, and model uncertainty), you can get the ... [Read more...]

Have you ever watched a livestream? Have you ever wondered what the actual minute to minute of doing data science looks like? Do you wonder if other R users have the same frustrations as you? If yes -- then read on!I'm off on a new professional adventure where I ... [Read more...]

A long overdue overhaul of my eeptools package for R was released to CRAN today and should be showing up in the mirrors soon. The release notes for this version are extensive as this represents a modernization of the package infrastructure and the reim... [Read more...]

Last week version 1.0 of the caretEnsemble package was released to CRAN. I have co-authored this package with Zach Mayer, who had the original idea of allowing for ensembles of train objects in the caret package. The package is designed to make it easy... [Read more...]

Recently the NPR program Marketplace did a story about the rise of the use of dropout early warning systems in public schools that you can read or listen to online. I was lucky enough to be interviewed for the piece because of the role I have play... [Read more...]

Really excited to launch my new website  - DATA-COPE, a place for education data analysts to share ideas, learn about the latest tools and policies affecting their work, and to keep the pulse on education analytics and the role they play in i... [Read more...]

For the past two years I have been working on the Wisconsin Dropout Early Warning System, a predictive model of on time high school graduation for students in grades 6-9 in Wisconsin. The goal of this project is to help schools and educators have an ea... [Read more...]

[This article was first published on Data, Evidence, and Policy - Jared Knowles, and kindly contributed to R-bloggers]. (You can report issue about the content on this page [Read more...]

Version 0.3 of my R package of miscellaneous code has been released, this time with substantial contributions from Jason Becker via GitHub. Progress continues toward the ultimate goal for eeptools to "make it easier for administrators at stat... [Read more...]

I have been meaning to write a long post explaining each of the major R projects I am currently working on, but I can't seem to find the time to get to them. Instead, I give you a short summary of a few R projects/experiments/ideas I am kicking ... [Read more...]

Getting Started with Multilevel Modeling in R Getting Started with Multilevel Modeling in R Jared E. Knowles Introduction Analysts dealing with grouped data and complex hierarchical structures in their data ranging from measurements nested within participants, to counties nested within states or students nested within classrooms often find themselves in ... [Read more...]

Getting Started with Structural Equation Modeling Part 1Getting Started with Structural Equation Modeling: Part 1 Introduction For the analyst familiar with linear regression fitting structural equation models can at first feel strange. In the R environment, fitting structural equation models involves learning new modeling syntax, new plotting syntax, and often a ... [Read more...]

How to Ask for Help using R How to Ask for Help using R The key to getting good help with an R problem is to provide a minimally working reproducible example (MWRE). Making an MWRE is really easy with R, and it will help ensure that those helping you ... [Read more...]

My R package eeptools has reached version 0.2. As with the last release, this is still a preliminary release which means that functionality is not full, function names and code behavior may still change from version to version, and I am still looking f... [Read more...]

Over the past two months I have tried to convert completely to HTML5 slides, HTML reports and R + knitr. The switch from Sweave came with a few frustrations but I think overall it is way better - it is incredibly efficient and while some flexibility on... [Read more...]

Learn about ColoRs in R!Analyze model results with custom functions.Good and Bad GraphicsTo train new employees at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, I have developed a 2-3 day series of training modules on how to get work done in R. These... [Read more...]

I am pleased to announce that together with Justin Meyer (also from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction) I will be presenting a two hour version of the R Bootcamp. Sector67 is a collaborative maker/hacker space in Madison, and is a great ven... [Read more...]

Recently I was invited to give a talk to two cohorts of Strategic Data Project fellows. I was asked to speak about using data visualization to help inform decision-making of policy makers. At the same time, the group had a lot of variation in their int... [Read more...]

I have been working on developing some interactive tools for demonstrating statistical principles. The advent of the shiny framework for R from the RStudio team has made this very easy to do. These demos are still in the development... [Read more...]

There's not a lot you can do to increase your odds of winning the lottery tonight. With the PowerBall at $500 million though, a lot of otherwise rational folks might be tempted into playing. For those of you newly tempted, it is important to remember a... [Read more...]