Understanding the structure of data when planning for analysis: application of hierachical linear models

Human beings and other living creatures tend to exist within organisational structures, such as families, schools and business organisations. In an educational system, students exist within a hierarchical social structure that can include classroom, grade level, school, school district and country. Data obtained from such social structures are hierarchical. It is critical that social scientists understand the structure of the data because it dictates the statistical techniques to be used for analysis and interpretation.