The former has tended to adopt a detailed descriptive role of studying school processes while the latter has tended, with one or two exceptions, to make use of whatever data happen to be available to draw conclusions. This is both unnecessary and inefficient. If the field of SE research is to achieve coherence it needs to agree on common approaches to what constitutes adequate measurement and on what constitutes an appropriate set of analytical procedures for summarising, modelling and drawing conclusions. We believe that one of the more fruitful developments of recent years has been the application of multilevel modelling techniques in this area. The main thrust of these statistical models is to attempt to set up mathematical descriptions which are sufficiently complex that they will be able to capture the real life complexity which exists.
Techniques now exist for handling more generally multidimensional structures which change over time.
One of the problems with the adoption of sophisticated statistical techniques is that they may become difficult to explain. This has led some commentators to reject their use in favour of 'simpler' techniques. While we accept the difficulties associated with the explanation of complex analyses this should not become an excuse for using inferior or misleading methodologies. Rather, ways need to be found to enable this to take place. The criticisms of some commentators seem to reflect a misunderstanding of the technicalities.