The use of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods for estimating hierarchical models
involves complex data structures and is often described as a revolutionary development. An …

Veena S Raleigh is a Senior Fellow in the policy directorate at The King's Fund, working on
quality measurement and epidemiological issues. She is an epidemiologist with research …

The present study focuses on the perception of primary school principals of school
performance feedback (SPF) and of the actual use of this information. This study is part of a …

Background: Measuring quality of care and ranking hospitals with outcome measures poses
two major methodological challenges: case-mix adjustment and variation that exists by …

“Provider profiling” is the evaluation of the performance of hospitals, doctors, and other
medical practitioners to enhance the quality of medical care. We propose a new method and …

Objective: To develop a method of evaluating trauma center mortality that addresses the
limitations of currently available methodology—Standardized Mortality Ratios (SMRs) based …

This paper examines the role of social class and prior achievement composition effects on
pupils' progress and the judgements made about school performance. It finds that there are …

Students' competencies are influenced by a host of factors, including individual school's
effectiveness. Measuring this contribution is extremely difficult. One way of circumventing the …

This article explores the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) with
particular emphasis on the European Union's (EU's) involvement in the regional portion …

National statistical offices are often required to provide statistical information at several
administrative or small area levels. Having good area level estimates is important because …