TY - JOUR
T1 - Phantom effects in school composition research
T2 - consequences of failure to control biases due to measurement error in traditional multilevel models
AU - Televantou, Ioulia
AU - Marsh, Herbert W.
AU - Kyriakides, Leonidas
AU - Nagengast, Benjamin
AU - Fletcher, John
AU - Malmberg, Lars Erik
PY - 2015/1/2
Y1 - 2015/1/2
N2 - The main objective of this study was to quantify the impact of failing to account for measurement error on school compositional effects. Multilevel structural equation models were incorporated to control for measurement error and/or sampling error. Study 1, a large sample of English primary students in Years 1 and 4, revealed a significantly negative compositional effect associated with school-average achievement that became more negative after controlling for measurement error. Study 2, a large study of Cypriot primary students in Year 4, showed a small, positive but statistically significant compositional effect that became non-significant after controlling for measurement error. Our findings have important methodological, substantive, and theoretical implications for on-going debates on the school compositional effects on students’ outcomes, because nearly all previous research has been based on traditional approaches to multilevel models, which are positively biased, due to the failure to control for measurement error.
AB - The main objective of this study was to quantify the impact of failing to account for measurement error on school compositional effects. Multilevel structural equation models were incorporated to control for measurement error and/or sampling error. Study 1, a large sample of English primary students in Years 1 and 4, revealed a significantly negative compositional effect associated with school-average achievement that became more negative after controlling for measurement error. Study 2, a large study of Cypriot primary students in Year 4, showed a small, positive but statistically significant compositional effect that became non-significant after controlling for measurement error. Our findings have important methodological, substantive, and theoretical implications for on-going debates on the school compositional effects on students’ outcomes, because nearly all previous research has been based on traditional approaches to multilevel models, which are positively biased, due to the failure to control for measurement error.
KW - hierarchical structures
KW - measurement error
KW - multilevel structural equation modelling
KW - phantom compositional effects
KW - sampling error
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84921489154&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09243453.2013.871302
DO - 10.1080/09243453.2013.871302
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84921489154
SN - 0924-3453
VL - 26
SP - 75
EP - 101
JO - School Effectiveness and School Improvement
JF - School Effectiveness and School Improvement
IS - 1
ER -