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Large-Scale Data Lab Learning Performance and Research Center

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The Large-Scale Data lab or the LSD lab is part of the Learning and Performance Research Center (LPRC) at WSU College of Education. The lab was created in May 2019 with the support from the LPRC, the 2019-2020 WSU College of Education High-Risk/High-Reward grant, and the 2019-2021 WSU New Faculty Seed Grant. Currently, it is co-directed by Drs. Shenghai Dai and Kira Carbonneau, both are faculty of WSU Educational Psychology.

The purpose of the LSD lab is to provide our faculty and students with a physical secured space required by confidential data licensing such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and other large-scale assessment and survey programs. Specifically, the lab has the capacity and personnel to support the storage and analysis for confidential large-scale data: (1) it is of high-security and currently holding restricted-use data licenses from the federal government; (2) it is equipped with standalone powerful computers and software that can handle big data, and (3) personnel have expertise in big-data analytics and quantitative methods, and also have experience collaborating with scholars across multiple fields.

In 2019-2020 the lab was equipped by one federal secure data license of the NAEP data and two powerful computers with specialized software to promote the research capacity and activities for both faculty and students. The lab received $34,191.00 from three internal grants and was able to fund several graduate students in the summer of both 2019 and 2020. The resources of the lab in large-scale assessments also supported Drs. Dai and Carbonneau to submit multiple external grant proposals in collaboration with researchers from both inside and outside WSU. In addition, with the support of the lab, Olasunkanmi Kehinde, one of our current graduate students, won the opportunity to attend the 2020 NAEP data training (https://news.wsu.edu/2020/01/10/doctoral-student-wins-competitive-spot-national-data-workshop/).