1. Acknowledging the fact that the language R is now the most obvious path forward in quantitative analysis, I am now including tutorials using the R package Lavaan. If you are unfamiliar with the R project, I suggest you search it out.

2. I am currently in the process of developing an implementation of next-generation SEM. This next generation will add to the classic matrix-based approach of analyzing covariances, which has served us so very well this past 40 years. What we are adding is a graphical modeling approach that relies on local estimation and permits many enhancements. A couple of references to our work on that topic are

Grace, J.B., Scheiner, S.M., Schoolmaster, D.R. Jr. 2015. Structural equation modeling: building and evaluating causal models. Chapter 8 In: Fox, G.A., Negrete-Yanlelevich, S., and Sosa, V.J. (eds.) Ecological Statistics: From Principles to Applications. Oxford University Press. (for a copy, write to sem@usgs.gov).

Grace, J.B., Schoolmaster, D.R. Jr., Guntenspergen, G.R., Little, A.M., Mitchell, B.R., Miller, K.M., and Schweiger, E.W. 2012. Guidelines for a graph-theoretic implementation of structural equation modeling. Ecosphere 3(8): article 73 (available at http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/ES12-00048.1).