The Unit and the Context of the Analysis for Research in Educational Administration

Abstract

A fairly common error in research in educational administration is the inappropriate choice of the unit or the context of the analysis for a given research question. The statistical treatment of data for a particular unit and a particular context is often accompanied by an interpretation of the results for a different unit or context. This paper discusses those problems, using examples from recent Educational Administration Quarterly articles, and offers some suggestions for reducing such errors in future research.