Rick Sperling, Ph.D.

Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin

Introductory Statistics
Advanced Statistics
Tests and Measurement

HSIs and the property value of Whiteness
Statistical methods of managing missing data
Culturally responsive evaluator education
Critical race theory in education

Before joining St. Mary’s University, Rick Sperling, Ph.D., attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he was enrolled in a doctoral program and studied educational psychology with a dual emphasis in quantitative methods and human growth and development and a doctoral portfolio specialization in Mexican American Studies.

He believes statistics and applied program evaluation are two of the most important subjects he teaches because they equip students with a perspective that helps them to overcome cognitive heuristics that impair their ability to reason about the social world around them. Sperling’s goal for each student is that they will emerge from their education with an increased need for cognition, attributional complexity and a critical consciousness. When he is not teaching, Sperling enjoys playing Wiffle ball.

Sperling, R., & Márquez-Múñoz, J., (2023). Undergraduate certificate in community-based assessment and evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation, 2023(177), 115-122.

Sperling, R, (2017). Community-based research as graduate practicum: Preparing students for roles in program evaluation and academia. SAGE Research Methods Cases. 10.4135/9781473981034

Sperling, R. & Kuhn, C. (2016). CoBRAS as a predictor of attitudes toward redistributing resources to improve predominantly Black schools. Journal of Negro Education, 85(2), 172-183