Dr. Graham Rifenbark is an associate research scientist in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s School of Education. To date, he has secured a total of $1.6 million as co-PI from external funders such as the Institute of Educational Sciences, as well as $10.8 million as key personnel (statistician, psychometrician, evaluator) from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.
In addition to the aforementioned grant projects, Rifenbark has provided methodological expertise on over ten research grants and contracts from Federal and State sources since 2011. Such efforts have resulted in 40 peer-reviewed publications in journals such as the Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation.
Rifenbark’s methodological expertise is in latent variable methods, with a research line focused on structural equation modeling (SEM); toward this end, he routinely conducts Monte Carlo simulations. Specifically, this research aims to evaluate existing methods and develop new approaches for detecting structural misspecifications, as well as to investigate SEM estimation in the context of limited sample sizes. Another goal of his methodological research is to close the gap between quantitative and applied researchers by publishing best practices to guide applied research.