Understanding how children's broader context influences their development is critical if we are to develop policies that help them flourish. Combining sociological, economic, and psychological literature, we argue that ability stratification--the degree to which children of similar levels of ability are schooled together--influences a child's…

The technical complexities and sheer size of international large-scale assessment (LSA) databases often cause hesitation on the part of the applied researcher interested in analyzing them. Further, inappropriate choice or application of statistical methods is a common problem in applied research using these databases. This article serves as a…