Claire Thoreson, Assistant Professor


Primary Research Focus

Issues of equity in educational opportunities and outcomes, particularly those within and between social groups defined by race/ethnicity, gender, and class are the primary foci of my research pursuits. Specifically, I have conducted inquiries on trends over time in social group differences in academic and occupational outcomes; differential effects of high stakes testing; and measuring the effects of social context factors on race/ethnic and gender academic outcome gaps. My interest in the impact of teachers has prompted me to assess various measures of teacher quality and to employ multi-level models to estimate the impact of teachers and schools on student learning.

Professional Biography

Dr. Claire Thoreson  received her Ph.D. from The University of Chicago, graduating from the Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistical Analysis program in the Department of Education in the Division of Social Sciences. She subsequently completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Opinion Research Center sponsored by the Department of Sociology at The University of Chicago.

Consistently rated as excellent in student evaluations, Dr. Thoreson’s has focused on teaching doctoral-level courses in statistics and quantitative research methods and has served on over forty dissertation committees. Dr. Thoreson has also received support for her research through grants from the Spencer Foundation, the National Center for Education Statistics, and the American Educational Research Association (AERA). At the 2019 AERA annual meeting, Dr. Thoreson received a Division D commendation for her work in applying Bayesian methods to non-linear forecasting models.

Courses Taught

  • EPSY 831 Educational Statistics (face to face and online)
  • EDFD 903 & 905 Nature and Methodology 1 and 2
  • EDFD 931 Correlational Statistical Methods

Academic Degrees

  • PhD, The University of Chicago
  • MS, Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
  • BA, History, Northland College, Ashland, WI
  • BA, Economics, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee