Includes bibliographical references and index.

This case study describes some of the authors' experiences and issues that arose in conducting a research study on the academic growth in mathematics of students from Grades 3 to 7 on a state-wide test. The study focused on the growth trajectories of students in several special education exceptionality categories with an emphasis on objectively describing the size of achievement gaps between student subgroups. In our case study, we describe five components of our experiences: (a) deciding on a study design, (b) getting and preparing large-scale datasets, (c) issues in the use of longitudinal designs, (d) analytic and modeling decisions, and (e) presentation and dissemination of study results. We explain our reasoning in using extant data and how we dealt with some of the practical and methodological issues that arose in assembling and working with a large dataset. We outline some of the factors that led us to choose a hierarchical linear statistical model as the best analytic approach and illustrate how questions that arose in making methodological choices for this study led to additional research studies and papers. The issues we faced and our reasoning in making decisions illustrate a number of general issues in the design and analysis of longitudinal studies.

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