College of Education

What is the ORC?

UNT’s Office of Research Consulting (ORC) functions as a service and outreach office of UNT’s College of Education and is operated and sponsored by the Department of Educational Psychology.

The ORC provides research and consulting services for researchers both internal and external to UNT. The aim of the Office is to facilitate the exchange of information on research design, analysis, reporting, and engage the North Texas educational research community around common goals.

What does the ORC do?

• Individual consultations for researchers (students, faculty, staff, and researchers from educational institutions throughout the North Texas region).
• The Advanced Computing Laboratory for computational and analytical support – the ORC manages a laboratory possessing the latest in advanced workstation technology to support statistical analysis, machine learning, simulations, and maintains the latest software for social science research analyses including: SPSS, Stata, SAS, R/RStudio, JAGS, BUGS, Jamovi, Mplus, HLM, Atlas.ti, LISREL, EduG, Optimal Design, GPower, Python, STAN, and more.
• Instructional/Laboratory Support for Introductory and Intermediate Statistics courses taught in the College of Education.
• Instructional support in the Advanced Computing Laboratory for Advanced Statistical courses offered by the Department of Educational Psychology.
• A Speakers Bureau that facilitates contact and contracting with individual faculty throughout the College of Education so that they can be connected with schools, districts, media outlets, and policy makers in the DFW area for consultation, research, and in-service training for education professionals on the latest findings from educational research.
• Facilitating TREND (Texas Research and Evaluation Network for Development), a collaborative of researchers, assessment specialists, and evaluators from schools/districts, colleges, and other educational institutions in the North Texas area. This group meets monthly to share ideas, trends, and strategies that support educational research, assessment and evaluation.
• Podcast interviews with local/national researchers, evaluators, and educational specialists.
• Analytical video library, and a physical library of analysis resources in the Office.
• Program evaluation for grants and other projects. This service often requires a financial commitment for personnel and can include data collection, analysis, and reporting. Moreover, provided there is an agreement in advance, the ORC can aid in proposal development, and/or evaluation design for formative and summative program evaluations.
• For North Texas educational institutions/organizations implementing new interventions, the ORC can be engaged to provide external validation and reporting of the impact interventions have for intended populations either independently or in collaboration with the provider of the intervention.

 

The TREND (Texas Research and Evaluation Network for Development) Board of Advisors:

Dr. Lauren Allen, Coordinator of Research and Evaluation, Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD

Dr. Denisse Avila, Associate Dean of Assessment, Dallas College

Dr. Larry Featherston, Manager of Program Evaluation & Research, Dallas ISD

Dr. Luke Hurst, Executive Director of Advanced Learning Services, Richardson ISD

Ms. Becky Jackson, Director of Assessment and Accountability, McKinney ISD

Dr. Kay Shurtleff, Research & Evaluation Analyst, Region 10 ESC

Mr. Charles R. Stafford, Denton ISD Board of Trustees

The board of advisors help guide the services provided by the ORC that best support educational institutions in the North Texas area and help promote TREND in the North Texas Education community.

 

Faculty Sponsors and Program Managers of the ORC include:

Dr. Qi Chen, Associate Professor, University of North Texas

Dr. Robin Henson, Professor, University of North Texas

Dr. Darrell Hull, Professor, University of North Texas

Dr. Jihyun Lee, Assistant Professor, University of North Texas

Dr. Nicole Sankofa, Assistant Professor, University of North Texas

Dr. James Uanhoro, Assistant Professor, University of North Texas

The Office of Research Consulting is directed by Dr. Darrell M. Hull. Dr. Hull has conducted educational program evaluation for more than 25 years for programs locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. He is also a psychometrician with expertise in the development and validation of educational and psychological measures and assessments and coordinates the PhD concentration in Research Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics in the Department of Educational Psychology at UNT.

 

Our Staff:

Mr. Nduka Boika, Research Methodology, Measurement & Statistics Doctoral Student

Ms. Xiaolu Fan (ABD), Research Methodology, Measurement & Statistics Doctoral Student

Ms. Cecelia Samuels (ABD), Research Methodology, Measurement & Statistics Doctoral Student

 

For information about joining TREND (membership is free to public educators in North Texas) and participating in our monthly breakfast colloquium of educational researchers and practitioners on the UNT campus, please email us: COE-ORC@unt.edu

Consultations are by appointment only. Please use this form to schedule a consult. When completing the form, provide as much information about your project as possible.