Opportunities and Potential Pitfalls: Considerations when measuring student outcomes in physics learning environments

Quantitative metrics are of high interest for many wishing to understand how to better support students in physics learning spaces. Metrics cover a wide array of areas including assessment of physics knowledge, social interactions, experiences within the department, etc. as well as demographics (e.g., race, gender). Various metrics and methods have limitations as well as potential pitfalls that could produce inaccurate results. This talk will go over some common, less common, and new promising methods in quantitative physics education research, along with additional considerations before embarking on such work.