D. Betsy McCoach

Ann A. O'Connell

(sponsored by the Educational Statisticians, SIG) Multilevel Modeling of Educational Data, co-edited by Ann A. O’Connell, Ed.D., and D. Betsy McCoach, Ph.D., is the next volume in the series: Quantitative Methods in Education and the Behavioral Sciences: Issues, Research and Teaching (Information Age Publishing), sponsored by the Educational Statisticians' Special Interest Group (Ed-Stat SIG) of the American Educational Research Association. The use of multilevel analyses to examine effects of groups or contexts on individual outcomes has burgeoned over the past few decades. Multilevel modeling techniques allow educational researchers to more appropriately model data that occur within multiple hierarchies (i.e.- the classroom, the school, and/or the district). Examples of multilevel research problems involving schools include establishing trajectories of academic achievement for children within diverse classrooms or schools or studying school-level characteristics on the incidence of bullying. Multilevel models provide an improvement over traditional single-level approaches to working with clustered or hierarchical data; however, multilevel data present complex and interesting methodological challenges for the applied education research community. In keeping with the pedagogical focus for this book series, the papers this volume emphasize applications of multilevel models using educational data, with chapter topics ranging from basic to advanced. This book represents a comprehensive and instructional resource text on multilevel modeling for quantitative researchers who plan to use multilevel techniques in their work, as well as for professors and students of quantitative methods courses focusing on multilevel analysis. Through the contributions of experienced researchers and teachers of multilevel modeling, this volume provides an accessible and practical treatment of methods appropriate for use in a first and/or second course in multilevel analysis. A supporting website links chapter examples to actual data, creating an opportunity for readers to reinforce their knowledge through hands-on data analysis. This book serves as a guide for designing multilevel studies and applying multilevel modeling techniques in educational and behavioral research, thus contributing to a better understanding of and solution for the challenges posed by multilevel systems and data.

Multilevel Modeling of Educational Data

Bethany A. Bell

Multilevel Modeling Methods with Introductory and Advanced Applications provides a cogent and comprehensive introduction to the area of multilevel modeling for methodological and applied researchers as well as advanced graduate students. The book is designed to be able to serve as a textbook for a one or two semester course in multilevel modeling. The topics of the seventeen chapters range from basic to advanced, yet each chapter is designed to be able to stand alone as an instructional unit on its respective topic, with an emphasis on application and interpretation. In addition to covering foundational topics on the use of multilevel models for organizational and longitudinal research, the book includes chapters on more advanced extensions and applications, such as cross-classified random effects models, non-linear growth models, mixed effects location scale models, logistic, ordinal, and Poisson models, and multilevel mediation. In addition, the volume includes chapters addressing some of the most important design and analytic issues including missing data, power analyses, causal inference, model fit, and measurement issues. Finally, the volume includes chapters addressing special topics such as using large-scale complex sample datasets, and reporting the results of multilevel designs. Each chapter contains a section called Try This!, which poses a structured data problem for the reader. We have linked our book to a website (http://modeling.uconn.edu) containing data for the Try This! section, creating an opportunity for readers to learn by doing. The inclusion of the Try This! problems, data, and sample code eases the burden for instructors, who must continually search for class examples and homework problems. In addition, each chapter provides recommendations for additional methodological and applied readings.

Ann A. O'Connell

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