Cross-Sectional Multilevel Models

Educational systems are often described by structures in which the units of observation at one level are grouped within units at a higher level of structure. To illustrate, suppose that we are interested in assessing student performance based on an achievement test. Students are grouped into classes, classes are grouped into schools, and schools are grouped into districts. At each level, there are variables that may affect responses from a student. For example, at the class level, education of the teacher may be important, at the school level, the school size may be important, and at the district level, funding may be important. Further, each level of grouping may be of scientific interest. Finally, there may be not only relationships among variables within each group but also across groups that should be considered.