Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM)
The Complexity of Educational Contexts
Students live within a hierarchical social structure made up of classrooms, grades, schools, districts and so forth. Students who share the same environment and experiences tend to be more homogeneous with each other. It has been understood and proven that ignoring this aggregation when using conventional statistical methods may produce very misleading inferences about relationships among variables (e.g., misidentifying variables associated with school achievement, which can lead to the misallocation of resources fro schools). Therefore, it is always desirable to take account of the impact of hierarchies on students’ achievement and other correlated variables.
The figure above illustrates a hierarchical social structure, as an example, in which students are nested within schools and schools are nested within a school board.
What is HLM?
HLM (Hierarchical Linear Modeling) is a sound and useful statistical procedure for handling the complexity in hierarchical nested data which naturally exists in the educational system. It separately looks at the relationship between school and student variables with educational outcomes and therefore produces more accurate and reliable results. The results from an HLM analysis provide rich information for policy makers when making evidence-based decisions for improving the educational system. It has been highly regarded and widely used in education as well as other social science areas.
How HLM can help?
The common applications of HLM include doing inference tests for:
- more precise identification of student- and school-level variables that significantly associate with educational outcomes;
- average student and school achievement growth over years;
- relationships between school variables and student achievement growth;
- relationships between student/school interactions and educational outcomes;
- performance between subpopulations; and
- performance between various types of schools.
Example of HLM Analysis
Grade 7 CAT•4 Math achievement for school board A. Download the pdf.
Reference
Osborne, J. W. (2000). The advantages of hierarchical linear modeling. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 7(1).
To discuss further, please call David Galati at 1-800-668-1006.
Custom Assessments
CTC can provide expertise in the development of valid and reliable assessment instruments which are tailored to your needs. Our centre continues to be involved in various research and development projects. Over the last ten years, CTC projects have included the following:
- Province-wide assessments for Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and
Ontario
- Canada-wide longitudinal achievement surveys for Statistics
Canada
- District-wide assessments for various school jurisdictions
- Canada-wide admissions and placement tests for two large business
colleges
The Comprehensive English Language Test (CELT)
The Comprehensive English Language Test (CELT) has earned an excellent reputation as a valid and reliable instrument for measuring English language proficiency for English as a second language (ESL).
Canadian Achievement Survey Tests for Adults (CAST)
Canadian Achievement Survey Tests for Adults (CAST) measure achievement in reading, language and mathematics—literacy and numeracy skills which are important to success in adult educational programs.
|
Ordering