Raudenbush, Stephen W.

Stephen Webb Raudenbush (born c. 1946) is the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Sociology and Chairman of the Committee on Education at the University of Chicago. He is best known for his development and application of hierarchical linear models (HLM) in the field of education but he has also published on other subjects such as health and crime. Hierarchical linear models, which go by many other names, are used to study many natural processes. To use an example from education, a three level hierarchical model might account for the fact that students are nested in classrooms which are nested in schools. With the right data one could go further and note that schools are nested in districts which are nested in states. Repeated measures of the same individuals can be studied with these models as observations nested in people. Raudenbush received an Ed.D. in Policy Analysis and Evaluation Research in 1984 from Harvard University. In subsequent years he made major contributions to education research. His work has earned him numerous honors. In 2006, he was awarded both the “Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award” and the “Robert Park Award,” for outstanding work in community and urban sociology. Raudenbush is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences