Laura Pyott
Assistant Professor
Office: UNA 115
Phone: 610-436-3451
Fax: 610-738-0578
Ram Insititute of Survey Research (RISR), Co-director
Education
- MS Statistics University of Delaware
- BS Mathematics University of Richmond
Research Interests
- Election modeling
- Political polling of college students
Professional Experience
- 1992-1996 Biostatistician, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Pharmaceuticals
- 1997-1999 Marketing, Smith Kline Beecham Pharmaceuticals
- 1999-2002 Instructor, Delaware County Community College
- 2001-2016 Adjunct instructor, West Chester University
- 2017-present Instructor of Statistics, West Chester University
Selected Papers/Studies
- West Chester University 2018 midterm election Ram Poll Report.
Remark: This study was the subject of a news story in the Daily Local News on November 2, 2018.
- The 2020 Ram Poll Report.
The 2020 Ram Poll received 1,676 responses from undergraduate students attending 13 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. The survey queried students on topics such as the presidential election, voting by mail, the legalization of marijuana in Pennsylvania.
- Pyott, Laura C. (2021). Tennis Anyone? Teaching Experimental Design by Designing and Executing a Tennis Ball Experiment. Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education, DOI: 10.1080/10691898.2020.1854638
- Pyott, Laura and Michel, Joseph (2021). Ram Poll 2020 Campus Report
- The 2022 Ram Poll Report
The 2022 Ram Poll received 948 responses from undergraduate students attending 9 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. The survey queried students on the races for Pennsylvania governor and US Senator, as well as voting intention and mode, and opinions on important issues.
- Lawton, B. L., Pyott, L. C., Deyerin, K. R., & Foeman, A. K. (2023). Experiences of Misattributed Parentage Communities: Impacts of Discovering New Familial Kinships. Journal of Family History, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/03631990231156176
- The 2024 Ram Poll Report.
The 2024 Ram Poll received 1048 responses from undergraduates attending 9 universities in the PASSHE System. The survey queried students on the presidential and senate race, as well as voting intention and mode, and opinions on important issues. We added questions about election integrity and student debt.
Grants
- CELT grant for inaugural Ram Poll (2018)
- Provost Research Grant of $6680 for the 2020 Ram Poll
- Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching 2022, $4000
Media Reports
-
interview with KYW newsradio
We've been besieged by polls in the days leading up to the presidential election, but we thought one poll in particular was really interesting. It's called the 2020 Ram Poll, and it was conducted by West Chester University statistics professor Laura Pyott and her students. Today on KYW Newsradio In Depth Professor Pyott joins the podcast to talk about why they decided to set up a survey and what they found out by polling college students across Pennsylvania.