Lou Mariano is a senior statistician at the RAND Corporation. His current research includes topics in education, military manpower, and healthcare.
Mariano's education research has focused on evaluations of the implementation and efficacy of school reform efforts; furthering the methodology and application of experimental and quasi-experimental designs; refining methods for estimating teacher contributions to student learning; and the expansion of item response theory models, with emphasis on the reduction of measurement error. His current military manpower research includes investigation of factors impacting the dynamics of career path selection, promotion, retention, and diversity of Air Force personnel.
Mariano holds a Ph.D. in statistics from Carnegie Mellon University.
Selected Publications
Kilburn, M. Rebecca, Andrea Phillips, Celia J. Gomez, Louis T. Mariano, Christopher Joseph Doss, Wendy M. Troxel, Emily Morton, and Kevin Estes, Does Four Equal Five? Implementation and Outcomes of the Four-Day School Week, RAND Corporation (RR-A373-1), 2021
Schweig, Jonathan, Andrew McEachin, Megan Kuhfeld, Louis T. Mariano, and Melissa Kay Diliberti, Adapting Course Placement Processes in Response to COVID-19 Disruptions: Guidance for Schools and Districts, RAND Corporation (RR-A1037-1), 2021
Mariano, L.T. and Martorell, P., "The Causal Effects of Grade Retention on Behavioral Outcomes," Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness , 11(2), 2018
Mariano, L.T. and Elliott, M.N., "An Item Response Theory Approach to Estimating Survey Mode Effects: Analysis of Data from a Randomized Mode Experiment," Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, 5(2), 2017
Lim, Nelson, Louis T. Mariano, Amy G. Cox, David Schulker, and Lawrence M. Hanser, Improving Demographic Diversity in the U.S. Air Force Officer Corps, RAND Corporation (RR-495-AF), 2014
Mariano, Louis T. and Martorell, Paco, "The Academic Effects of Summer Instruction and Retention in New York City," Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 35, 2013
Mariano, L.T., McCaffrey, D.F., and Lockwood, J.R., "A Model For Teacher Effects From Longitudinal Data Without Assuming Vertical Scaling," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 35, 2010
Mariano, L.T. and Junker, B.W., "Covariates of the Rating Process in Hierarchical Models for Multiple Ratings of Test Items," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 32(3), 2007