This article reviews the statistical models that underpin institutional comparisons on the basis of outcome measures for their students. These multilevel models are developed to levels of complexity that match the problems posed. The strengths and limitations of inferences from these models are...

Misclassification is found in many of the variables used in social sciences and, in practice, tends to be ignored in statistical analyses, and this can lead to biased results. This paper shows how to correct for differential misclassification in multilevel models and illustrates the extent to...

There is on-going concern about the relationship between class size and achievement for children in their first years of schooling. The Institute of Education's class size project was set up to address this issue and began recruiting in the autumn of 1996. However, because of the non-normality...

The recently introduced National Pupil Database in England allows the tracking of every child through the compulsory phases of the state education system. The data from Key Stage 2 for three Local Education Authorities are studied, following cohorts of pupils through their schooling. The...