Using a sample of schools testing annually in grades 9-11 with a vertically linked series of assessments, a latent growth curve model is used to model test scores with student intercepts and slopes nested within school. Missed assessments can occur because of student mobility, student dropout, absenteeism, and other reasons. Missing data…

Dominance analysis (DA) is a method used to evaluate the relative importance of predictors that was originally proposed for linear regression models. This article proposes an extension of DA that allows researchers to determine the relative importance of predictors in hierarchical linear models (HLM). Commonly used measures of model adequacy in…