Faculty Directory

Courtney Donovan PhD

Associate Teaching Professor

School of Education & Human Development

Email Address:courtney.donovan@ucdenver.edu

Courtney Donovan Website

Youtube

Bio
Research, Publications, Projects

I was a middle school science teacher who essentially worked myself out of a job because I was asking too many questions and trying to use data to make improvements. I realized I needed more training which led me to a PhD in research methods and statistics. Now that I have the knowledge and tools I need, I have three goals: First, I want to provide practitioners with tools they need to make improvements and decisions based on good data and ensure that practitioner voices are heard across research fields (i.e. teachers, clinicians, clients, program users). Second, my love of STEM pulls me to ask questions that are science and math education related and drives much of my research. Third, I love supporting other researchers with measurement and modeling techniques. Plus, I love teaching classes that can be intimidating (i.e. stats!) and making them accessible to all my students. Check out my Research Website and YouTube Channel for resources.

Areas of Expertise

Psychometrics and Measurement, specifically using Item Response Theory via Rasch modeling
Quantitative Methods, specifically advanced modeling with Structural Equation Models
Qualitative Methods
Mixing methods

Education, Licensure & Certifications

PhD in Research Methods and Statistics
MA in Curriculum & Instruction with teaching license in secondary science
BS in Biology

Resumes/CV:

Donovan, Courtney

Awards

2022 CU Denver campus award for Excellence in Research and Creative Work for Instructional, Research, and Clinical Faculty
2022 School of Education & Human Development’s Excellence in Research Award
2020 CU Denver Graduate School Award for Mentoring Doctoral Students
2019 Provost’s Award for Excellence in Practices Related to Non-Tenure-Track Faculty; given to the SEHD Faculty Research Center
2018 Service Award from the Division of School Psychology of the American Psychological Association
2016 Excellence in Youth Services Award for the Putting SPELL (Supporting Parents in Early Literacy through Libraries) into Action grant work from the Colorado Association of Libraries
2014 Best Graduate Student Paper Award from the International Objective Measurement Workshop

Research

Courtney’s research interests include working in the "research to practice" gap towards meaningful findings for practitioners, developing & validating measures in psychology and social sciences, and statistical modeling with datasets encouraging educational and societal change. She consistently presents at the American Educational Research Association (AERA)’s with the Rasch SIG and served as the Program Co-Chair in 2019-2021 as well as at the American Evaluation Association (AEA)’s with the Teaching Evaluation TIG.

Publications and Presentations

Sample Publications
Leech, N.L., & Donovan, C. (2023). Designing integrative mixed methods research: Mixed methods sampling and data collection. In: Tierney, R.J., Rizvi, F., Erkican, K. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education, vol. 12. Elsevier. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818630-5.11047-4. ISBN: 9780128186305 Forbes, L., Lamar, M., Speciale, M., & Donovan, C. (2021). Mothers’ and fathers’ parenting attitudes during COVID-19. Current Psychology. 1-10 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01605-x Zong, C., Donovan, C., & Fuchs, T. (2020). The development and validation of teen beliefs on relationship abuse measure (TBRAM). Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Zong, C., Donovan, C., & Marin-Prais, D. (2020). Understanding How EdD Students View Educational Research: Domain, Taxonomic, Componential, and Text Mining Analysis. Journal of Educational Leadership in Action, 6(2). Crist, B., Donovan, C., Doran-Myers, M., & Hofschire, L. (2019). Supporting Parents in Early Literacy through Libraries (SPELL): An Evaluation of a Multi-Site Library Project. Public Libraries Quarterly. Donovan, C. (2018). Rasch analysis of the teachers’ Knowledge and Use of Data and Assessment (tKUDA) measure. Journal of Applied Measurement.

Sample Teaching Presentations
Donovan, C. & Luce, C. (November 2022). Tips and Conversations about Creating a Culturally Responsive Evaluation Course. Paper accepted for presentation at the annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association. Donovan, C., Luce, C. & McClintock, E. (November 2021). Designing and scaffolding experiential learning with real clients to teach evaluation. Pre-conference presentation featured at the annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association. Phan, N., Luce, C., & Donovan, C., (September 2021). Combining Social Betterment and Inclusive Teaching Via Discussion Boards in Basic and Intermediate Statistics. Paper accepted for presentation at the satellite meeting of the International Association for Statistical Education.

Sample Research Presentations
Donovan, C, Johnson, H. L., Bechtold, L, Knurek, R., Whitmore, K. A. (April, 2023). A Rasch Analysis of a Measure of Graph Selection and Reasoning for Dynamic Situations. Paper accepted for presentation at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Virtual/Chicago. Donovan, C., Griffin, J., Gullet, S., Lamont-Manfre, M., & O'Brien, S. (November 2022). Mixed Methods Social Media Evaluation. Poster accepted for presentation at the annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association.

Faculty by Program

School of Education & Human Development

CU Denver

Lawrence Street Center

1380 Lawrence Street

701

Denver, CO 80204

303-315-6300

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Faculty Directory

Courtney Donovan PhD

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School of Education & Human Development