Education

  • Postdoc 2012 – University of Amsterdam, Psychological Methods
  • Ph.D. 2010 – Simon Fraser University, Psychology (Theory and Methods)
  • M.Sc. 2005 – University of Calgary, Psychology
  • B.A. 2002 – University of Calgary, Psychology (Hons)

Area of Expertise

  • Psychometrics
  • Educational measurement
  • Educational technology
  • Small group collaborations
  • Educational psychology

Background

Peter Halpin specializes in psychometrics and educational measurement. He earned his Ph.D. from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. Prior to joining UNC, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam, and an assistant/associate professor at New York University. He has served (or currently serves) on the editorial boards of American Education Research Journal, AERA Open, Journal of Educational Measurement, Journal of Educational Psychology, and Psychometrika, and is one of 65 elected members of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology.

Research

The overall goal of Peter Halpin’s research is to develop innovative and rigorous statistical methodology to address pressing issues that arise in educational research, practice, and policy. Examples of some research questions his work has addressed are listed below.

  • How can online learning environments be designed to support small-group interactions among students, and what do students learn as a result of such interactions?
  • How can we use intensive time-series data obtained from students’ use of educational technology to make reliable, valid, and fair inferences about student learning?
  • What makes teaching practices “effective” and how can we best provide educators with meaningful feedback about their practices?
  • How do the psychometric properties of outcome measures affect the conclusions that can be made from cluster-randomized control trials?
  • How can we measure children’s early development in a way that is both psychometrically rigorous and feasible to implement on a global scale?

His applied work has addressed the development, validation, and/or scoring of assessments of early childhood development, child functioning, childhood adversity, children’s home environment, student collaboration, soft skills, academic outcomes, instructional practices, and teacher working conditions. This work has been conducted in local, national, and international settings, and in collaboration with organizations including ETS, mdrc, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, RTI International, Save the Children, UNICEF Data and Analytics Section, and the World Bank Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund. His research has been supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Academy of Education, the National Science Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation.

  • EDUC 994, Doctoral Research and Dissertation
  • EDUC 796B, Independent Study Doctoral Level
  • EDUC 784, Intermediate Statistical Methods
  • EDUC 894, Item Response Theory
  • EDUC 990, Supervised Research
  • PSYC 991, Advanced Research
  • PSYC 993, Master’s Research and Thesis
  • EDUC 796B
  • EDUC 829, Applied Measurement Theory for Education
  • EDUC 787, Problems in Educational Measurement
  • EDUC 710, Introductory Statistical Methods
  • EDUC 888, Introduction to Structural Modeling

“How the Choice of Outcome Measures Affects the Conclusions of STEM Education Research: Statistical Methods and Sensitivity Analyses”; National Science Foundation (NSF), $478,433. (July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2027).

“Equitable Rostering Solution: A Project on Evidence-Based Teacher-Student Assignment”, Springer, M., Lead Principal Investigator; Cohen-Vogel, L., Co-Principal Investigator; Domina, T., Co-Principal Investigator; Halpin, P., Co-Principal Investigator; US Department of Education (DOED), $1,722,596. (July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2025).

“Classroom Rostering Practices and Student Outcomes”; Belk Foundation, $164,000. (June 1, 2023 – May 31, 2025).

“3EA Measurement and Metrics Phase 2: Peru and HEA Supplement”, Halpin, P., Lead Principal Investigator; New York University, $100,939. (Prime Project: $460,388, Stiftung Auxilium). (February 1, 2022 – February 28, 2023).

“Comparing Children’s Social Emotional Learning in Peruvian National and Venezuelan Refugee Populations”, Halpin, P., Lead Principal Investigator; Nickodem, K., Co-Principal Investigator; New York University, $125,323. (August 1, 2021 – February 28, 2023).

“Paving the Way for Evidence-Based Teacher-Student Assignment in North Carolina (the Paving the Way project)”, Springer, M., Lead Principal Investigator; Cohen-Vogel, L., Co-Principal Investigator; Halpin, P., Co-Principal Investigator; Belk Foundation, $189,717. (January 1, 2021 – December 31, 2022).

“Comparing Children’s Social Emotional Learning in Peruvian National and Venezuelan Refugee Populations”, Halpin, P., Lead Principal Investigator; Nickodem, K., Co-Principal Investigator; New York University, $99,270. (August 1, 2021 – April 30, 2022).

“Lebanon SEL Framework Mapping Project – Part B”, Halpin, P., Lead Principal Investigator; Kyle, N., Co-Principal Investigator; New York University, $29,999. (Prime Project: $527,463, Stiftung Auxilium). (January 1, 2021 – August 31, 2021).

“Evidence Based Staffing: A Feasibility Study and Proposal Completion Project”, Springer, M., Lead Principal Investigator; Cohen-Vogel, L., Co-Principal Investigator; Dong, N., Co-Principal Investigator; Halpin, P., Co-Principal Investigator; UNC-CH – School of Education, $19,999. (June 1, 2019 – December 31, 2020).

“Math Pathways Implementation Evaluators”, Halpin, P., Lead Principal Investigator; UNC-CH – System, $10,000. (July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020).

  • Elected Member, Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology. (July 1, 2023).
  • American Education Research Association. (January 1, 2013 – Present).
  • National Council on Measurement in Education. (January 1, 2013 – Present).
  • The Psychometric Society. (January 1, 2008 – Present).

Journal Article

Yu, L., Halpin, P., Bernacki, M., Ren, S., Plumley, R. D., & Greene, J. (2025). Interpreting Predictive Learning Sequences in a College Math Course through a Self-Regulated Learning Framework. Journal of Learning Analytics, 12(3), 66–86.

Halpin, P. (accepted). Testing Whether Reported Treatment Effects are Unduly Dependent on the Specific Outcome Measure Used. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness. https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.03502

Tsai, A., & Halpin, P. (2025). The Development and Validation of a Dimensional Childhood Adversity Measure. Assessment. Published.

Halpin, P. (2024). Differential item functioning via robust scaling. Psychometrika. Published.

Halpin, P., De Castro, E. F., Petrowski, N., & Cappa, C. (2024). Monitoring Early Childhood Development at the Population Level: The ECDI2030. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. Published. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2023.11.004

Cherner, T., Halpin, P., Fegely, A., & Hou, C. (2023). AI-Powered Presentation Platforms for Improving Public Speaking Skills: Takeaways and Suggestions for Improvement. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 34(2), Article 6. https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/222302/

Shi, Y., Howe, T., Halpin, P., & Bei, W. (2023). Dyadic analysis of illness perceptions among individuals with stroke and their caregivers: effects on activity engagement in community living. Disability and Rehabilitation. Published.

Cherner, T., & Halpin, P. (2022). Determining the educational value of virtual reality apps using content analysis. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 32(4). https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/219604/

Shi, Y., Howe, T. H., Halpin, P., & Bei, W. (2022). Poststroke activity engagement in community dwellers: Association with illness perceptions and perceived environment. Clinical Rehabilitation. Published. https://doi.org/10.1177/02692155221111926

Emmett, S., Platt, A., & Halpin, P. (2022). Mobile health school screening and telemedicine referral to improve access to specialty care in rural Alaska: A cluster-randomized controlled trial. The Lancet Global Health. Published. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00184-X

Halpin, P., Gates, K., & Liu, S. (2022). Guest editors’ introduction to the special issue on forecasting with intensive longitudinal data. Psychometrika. Published. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336-022-09850-0

Cherng, H. Y., Halpin, P., & Rodriguez, L. (2021). Teaching bias? Relations between Teaching Quality and Racial Composition of Classroom. American Journal of Education. Published. https://doi.org/10.1086/717676

Frongillo, E., Basnet, S., Halpin, P., Petrowski, N., & Cappa, C. (2021). Assessment of positive and stimulating home environments for global monitoring. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 31, 473–483. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02164-2

Yoav, B., & Halpin, P. (2021). Exploratory item response theory in the style of collaborative filtering. Pyschometrika. Published. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336-021-09788-9

Halpin, P. (2021). Measuring dynamical interdependence in small-group collaborations. Journal of Learning Analytics, 8, 95–112. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2021.724

Mohan, K., Bergner, Y., & Halpin, P. (2020). Predicting Group Performance Using Process Data in a Collaborative Assessment. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 25, 367–388. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1007/s10758- 020-09439-5

Jensen, B., Wallace, T. L., Steinberg, M. P., Gabriel, R. E., Dietiker, L., Davis, D. S., Kelcey, B., Minor, E. C., Halpin, P., & Rui, N. (2019). Complexity and scale in teaching effectiveness research: Reflections from the MET Study. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 27, 7.

Halpin, P., Wolf, S., Yoshikawa, H., Rojas, N., Kabay, S., Pisani, L., & Dowd, A. J. (2019). Measuring early learning and development across cultures: Invariance of the IDELA across five countries. Developmental Psychology, 55(1), 23.

Seidman, E., Kim, S., Raza, M., Ishihara, M., & Halpin, P. (2018). Assessment of pedagogical practices and processes in low and middle income countries: Findings from secondary school classrooms in Uganda. Teaching and Teacher Education, 71, 283–296.

Halpin, P., & Bergner, Y. (2018). Psychometric Models of Small Group Collaborations. Psychometrika, 83(4), 941–962.

Halpin, P. (2017). How Can We Improve the Measurement of “Non-Academic” Competencies?. Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives, 15(2), 70–72.

Aber, J. L., Torrente, C., Starkey, L., Johnston, B., Seidman, E., Halpin, P., Shivshanker, A., Weisenhorn, N., Annan, J., & Wolf, S. (2017). Impacts after one year of “Healing Classroom” on children’s reading and math skills in DRC: Results from a cluster randomized trial. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 10(3), 507–529.

Wolf, S., Halpin, P., Yoshikawa, H., Dowd, A. J., Pisani, L., & Borisova, I. (2017). Measuring school readiness globally: Assessing the construct validity and measurement invariance of the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) in Ethiopia. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 41, 21–36.

Halpin, P., von Davier, A. A., Hao, J., & Liu, L. (2017). Measuring student engagement during collaboration. Journal of Educational Measurement, 54(1), 70–84.

Aber, J. L., Tubbs, C., Torrente, C., Halpin, P., Johnston, B., Starkey, L., Shivshanker, A., Annan, J., Seidman, E., & Wolf, S. (2017). Promoting children’s learning and development in conflict-affected countries: testing change process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Development and Psychopathology, 29(1), 53–67.

Halpin, P. (2016). Assessing the construct validity of Save the Children’s International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA)(Technical Report). Published.

Byun, T. M., Harel, D., Halpin, P., & Szeredi, D. (2016). Deriving gradient measures of child speech from crowdsourced ratings. Journal of Communication Disorders, 64, 91–102.

McAllister Byun, T., Swartz, M. T., Halpin, P., Szeredi, D., & Maas, E. (2016). Direction of attentional focus in biofeedback treatment for/r/misarticulation. International Journal of Language \& Communication Disorders, 51(4), 384–401.

Halpin, P. (2016). Preliminary psychometric analysis of the Early Childhood Development Index (Technical Report). Published.

Halpin, P. (2016). Psychometric analysis of the Child Functioning Module: Comparisons between Serbia and Mexico (Technical Report). Published.

Cherng, H. S., & Halpin, P. (2016). The importance of minority teachers: Student perceptions of minority versus White teachers. Educational Researcher, 45(7), 407–420.

Halpin, P., & Kieffer, M. J. (2015). Describing profiles of instructional practice: a new approach to analyzing classroom observation data. Educational Researcher, 44(5), 263–277.

Byun, T. M., Halpin, P., & Szeredi, D. (2015). Online crowdsourcing for efficient rating of speech: A validation study. Journal of Communication Disorders, 53, 70–83.

Halpin, P., da-Silva, C., & De Boeck, P. (2014). A confirmatory factor analysis approach to test anxiety. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 21(3), 455–467.

Halpin, P., & Torrente, C. (2014). Measuring Critical Education Processes and Outcomes: Illustration from a Cluster Randomized Trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness. Published.

von Davier, A. A., & Halpin, P. (2013). Collaborative problem solving and the assessment of cognitive skills: Psychometric considerations. ETS Research Report Series, 2013(2), i–36.

von Davier, A., & Halpin, P. (2013). Collaborative problem solving and the assessment of cognitive skills: Psychometric considerations (Manuscript)(\# RR-13-41). Published.

Spiegel, A. N., McQuillan, J., Halpin, P., Matuk, C., & Diamond, J. (2013). Engaging teenagers with science through comics. Research in Science Education, 43(6), 2309–2326.

Halpin, P., & De Boeck, P. (2013). Modelling dyadic interaction with Hawkes processes. Psychometrika, 78(4), 793–814.

Bungay, V., Halpin, M., Halpin, P., Johnston, C., & Patrick, D. M. (2012). Violence in the massage parlor industry: experiences of Canadian-born and immigrant women. Health Care for Women International, 33(3), 262–284.

Halpin, P., Dolan, C. V., Grasman, R. P., & De Boeck, P. (2011). On the relation between the linear factor model and the latent profile model. Psychometrika, 76(4), 564–583.

Lovato, C. Y., Zeisser, C., Campbell, H. S., Watts, A. W., Halpin, P., Thompson, M., Eyles, J., Adlaf, E., & Brown, K. S. (2010). Adolescent smoking: effect of school and community characteristics. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 39(6), 507–514.

Lovato, C. Y., Pullman, A. W., Halpin, P., Zeisser, C., Nykiforuk, C. I., Best, F., Diener, A., & Manske, S. (2010). Peer Reviewed: The Influence of School Policies on Smoking Prevalence Among Students in Grades 5-9, Canada, 2004-2005. Preventing Chronic Disease, 7(6).

Halpin, P., & Maraun, M. D. (2010). Selection between linear factor models and latent profile models using conditional covariances. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 45(6), 910–934.

Maraun, M. D., & Halpin, P. (2008). Manifest and latent variates. Published.

Halpin, P., & Stam, H. J. (2006). Inductive Inference or Inductive Behavior: Fisher and Neyman: Pearson Approaches to Statistical Testing in Psychological Research (1940-1960). The American Journal of Psychology, 625–653.

Book Chapter

Springer, M., Halpin, P., Springer, J., Stuit, D., Cohen-Vogel, L., & Chris, B. (2022). The Case for Educational Matching Markets: Practical Resource Allocation Schemes for Addressing Inequities and Achievement Gaps. In Recent Advancements in Education Finance and Policy. T. Downes and K. Killeen (Eds).

Halpin, P. F., Lu, O., & Michelle, L. (2021). Time series and stochastic processes. In Computational Psychometrics.. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74394-9

Halpin, P., & von Davier, A. A. (2017). Modeling collaboration using point processes. In Innovative Assessment of Collaboration (pp. 233–247). Springer.

Halpin, P. (2013). A scalable EM algorithm for Hawkes processes. In New Developments in Quantitative Psychology (pp. 403–414). Springer.

Book Review

Halpin, P. (2020). A Review of Handbook of Item Response Theory: Vol. 1. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics. Published. https://doi.org/10.3102/1076998620978551

Conference Proceeding

Byun, T. M., Halpin, P., & Harel, D. (2015). Crowdsourcing for gradient ratings of child speech: Comparing three methods of response aggregation. ICPhS. Published.

Software

Nickodem, K., & Halpin, P. (2021). KFA: K-fold Crossvalidation for Factor Analysis. Comprehensive R Archive Network. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=kfa

Technical Report

Yang, E., Halpin, P., & Hanndy, D. (2022). Using Psychometric Analysis to Improve Soft-Skill Assessments.. https://www.mdrc.org/publication/using-psychometric- analysis-improve-soft-skill-assessments

Halpin, P. F. (2018). Revising the Early Childhood Development Index for use as SDG indicator 4.2.1. Technical Report prepared for UNICEF Division of Data, Research and Policy.. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Data and Analytics Section, Division of Data, Research and Policy.

Professional

  • Editor, AERA Open. (December 2024 – December 2028).
  • Board of Advisors, Editorial Advisory Board for Multivariate Behavioral Research. (September 2024 – September 2027).
  • Board of Advisors, IES R305D240023. Developing and Evaluating Tools for Communicating Statistical Evidence to Education Decision-Makers. PI Tipton, Northwestern University (2024-2027). (July 2024 – June 2027).
  • Program Organizer, Joint Quantitative Brownbag. (June 2023 – June 2026).
  • Editor, Psychometrika. (December 2023 – December 2025).
  • Editorial Review Board Member, Journal of Educational Measurement. (October 2022 – October 2025).
  • Board of Advisors, Psychometric Society. (September 2022 – September 2025).
  • Editorial Review Board Member, Journal of Educational Psychology. (June 1, 2018 – June 1, 2025).
  • Reviewer/Referee, NSF MMS (ad hoc). (October 2024 – November 2024).
  • Reviewer/Referee, NSF DRK-12 (panelist). (May 2024 – July 2024).
  • Reviewer/Referee, International Meeting of the Psychometric Society. (April 2024 – May 2024).
  • Reviewer/Referee, Society for research on Educatioal Effectivencess. (April 2024).
  • Board of Advisors, LEGO Foundation (RfT: Developing quality learning through play tools). Playful Learning Across the Years (PLAY) Measurement Initiative. Project lead: RTI International. (November 2020 – November 2022).
  • Board of Advisors, ARI W911NF-18-S-0001. Estimating an Individual’s Contribution to Small Group Performance. Project lead: ETS. (September 1, 2019 – September 1, 2022).
  • Board of Advisors, IES grant # R305A170304. Teaching and Learning 21st Century Skills in Community Colleges: A Study of the New World of Work Program. (September 1, 2018 – September 1, 2022).
  • Guest editor, Psychometrika. (January 2020 – January 2022).
  • Reviewer/Referee, Various. (January 1, 2021 – December 1, 2021).
  • Reviewer/Referee, Various. (January 2020 – December 2020).
  • Committee Member, UNICEF. (January 1, 2017 – August 1, 2020).
  • Session Chair, Psychometric Soceity. (February 1, 2019 – July 19, 2020).
  • Conference-Related, Psychometric Society. (August 28, 2019 – July 15, 2020).
  • Reviewer/Referee, Psychometric Society student travel / poster awards. (April 1, 2017 – April 1, 2020).
  • Reviewer/Referee, Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness. (October 1, 2015 – March 1, 2020).
  • Reviewer/Referee, Various. (January 1, 2019 – December 31, 2019).
  • Reviewer/Referee, Tenure review committees. (January 15, 2019 – December 20, 2019).
  • Editorial Review Board Member, American Educational Research Journal. (July 1, 2016 – July 1, 2019).
  • Reviewer/Referee, Institute of Education Sciences Basic Processes Program. (February 1, 2016 – February 1, 2019).
  • Reviewer/Referee, Various. (January 1, 2018 – December 1, 2018).
  • Program Organizer, International Objective Measurement Workshop, New York, NY. (January 1, 2018 – August 1, 2018).

University

  • Member, General Education Oversight Committee. (August 2025 – April 2026).
  • TA Committee, School of Education. (March 2021 – August 2022).
  • LSPS Progam Coordinator, School of Education. (March 2020 – August 2022).
  • Statistical research analyst search committee chair, School of Education. (October 1, 2019 – April 30, 2020).
  • IDEAs in Action Course Review Committee for the 2019-2020 academic year. (November 1, 2019 – December 31, 2019).
  • Chair, Quantitative methods planning committee. (September 1, 2018 – August 1, 2019).
  • Member, Math education search committee. (August 1, 2018 – February 1, 2019).

Public

  • Board Member, NC DPI Office of Accountability and Testing. (March 2026 – March 2028).
  • Board Member, NC Teacher Working Conditions Survey advisory board, Raleigh, NC. (July 2023 – December 2024).
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