Biography and research interests

I am a Professor of Social Statistics and Co-Director of the Centre for Multilevel Modelling (CMM) at the School of Education, University of Bristol, UK.

My methodological interests are in the development, application and dissemination of multilevel and related models to analyse educational and other data. My substantive interests focus on design, analysis, and communication issues surrounding school performance measures and league tables, especially the use of value-added models for estimating school effects on student achievement for accountability and choice purposes.

I was awarded the Frances Wood Medal in the Royal Statistical Society's 2017 honours for my contributions to Social Statistics over the past 10 years, especially my school league table research.

I am currently principal investigator on an ESRC standard grant on new school league table research and am a co-investigator on an MRC grant and on a Swedish Research Council grant. Previously, I held an ESRC Future Research Leaders grant and have been a co-investigator on four other substantial ESRC grants.

My first-authored research includes publications in leading applied statistics journals: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A; Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics; Journal of Educational Measurement; Journal of Statistical Software; and Psychological Methods; as well as substantive educational journals: British Educational Research Journal. 

My co-authored research includes publications in further applied statistics journals: Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics; Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation; Statistics in Medicine; and Statistical Methods in Medical Research; and other top substantive journals: American Journal of Epidemiology; American Sociological Review; Criminology; Developmental Psychology; Journal of Management Studies.

I have taught over 50 multilevel modelling short courses across UK, Europe, Australia and US.

Research grants

I have been grant funded 40% of my time over the ten year period 2010/11 through 2019/20. My grants as Principal Investigator sum to £650,000 while my grants as Co-Investigator sum to over £5 million.

Current grants

• 2018-2021 How should we measure school performance and hold schools accountable? A study of competing statistical methods and how they compare to Progress 8, ESRC Standard Grant, £467,000, Principal Investigator.
• 2018-2021 Multilevel Analyses of Individual Heterogeneity: innovative concepts and methodological approaches in Public Health and Social Epidemiology, Swedish Research Council, £437,000, Co-Investigator

Past grants

• 2016-2019 Modelling within-individual variation in repeated continuous exposures, MRC, £398,000, Co-Investigator
• 2013-2018 The development of cooperation in relationships: Protective processes for children vulnerable to mental health problems, Canadian Institute of Health Research, £274,000, Co-Investigator
• 2013-2017 eBooks: The use of interactive electronic-books in the teaching and application of modern quantitative methods in the social sciences, ESRC, £786,000, Co-Investigator
• 2013-2015 Multilevel modelling of the Government's new school performance measures, 'Floor Standards' Target and 'Narrowing the Gap' Priority, ESRC, £207,000, Principal-Investigator
• 2012-2013 The impact of family relationships on children's developmental health: Child versus context effects, £50,000, Canadian Institute of Health Research, Co-Investigator
• 2011-2015 LEMMA 3: Longitudinal effects, multilevel modelling and applications, ESRC, £1,393,000, Co-Investigator
• 2009-2012 e-STAT: National Centre for E-social Science Quantitative Node, ESRC, £1,100,000, Co-Investigator
• 2008-2011 LEMMA 2: STRUCTURES for building, learning, applying and computing statistical models, ESRC, £1,200,000, Co-Investigator