MULTILEVEL INTERACTION MODELS AND THEIR USE IN THE ANALYSIS OF LARGE-SCALE SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS STUDIES

In the present paper we discuss the merits of a general multilevel app roach to model analysis of large scale school effectiveness studies. W e briefly review previous research framework which have been used in s chool effectiveness research and examine critically the assumptions on which they were based and the methodological implications of these as sumptions. The general interaction models presented in this paper prov ide an answer to many of these critiques. Findings from different type s of modeling supported the claim that the modeling of school effectiv eness studies must be both multilevel and interactive. Achievement is found to be dependent in a very sensitive, non-additive way, on the pa rticular combination of pupil's home background, his or her general ab ility, teaching style and other teacher characteristics, the class and the school context in which the pupil learns. Comparisons between par simonious main effect models with parsimonious interactive ones show t hat although the explanatory power of interaction models might be slig htly smaller, the use of interaction models causes changes in the spec ification of the models that cannot be ignored.