HLM 2L and 3L on the U Cluster

HLM is designed for statistical modeling of two- and three-level data structures using multi-level linear models. Information on hierarchical modeling is given in Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data analysis methods, by A.S. Bryk and S.W. Raudenbush (1992, Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications). The package consists of hlm2l and hlm3l, for 2- and 3-level univariate modeling, as well as hmlm and hmlm2, for 2- and 3-level multivariate modeling.

Analysis of data usually involves several steps:

Construction of the "SSM file" which contains the sufficient statistics matrix;
Execution of analyses based on the SSM file;
Evaluation of fitted models.

Getting Help and Information

To obtain help for hlm, type man followed by the name of the procedure:

hlm -- contains an overview of the HLM package;
hlm2 -- information specific to running the HLM/2L module;
hlm3 -- information specific to running the HLM/3L module;
hmlm -- information specific to running multivariate two-level models; and
hmlm2 -- information specific to running multivariate three-level models.

Sample HLM programs and data are stored in /usr/local/lib/hlm.

Creating the SSM Matrix using HLM 2L or 3L

The SSM matrix is created by running one of the modules interactively. This is done by typing at the system prompt, "hlm2", "hlm3", "hmlm", or "hmlm2".

You will be prompted for information including the name of the raw data files, FORTRAN-style formats for reading variables from the data files, the names of the variables, and the level of the data file (1, 2, or 3). HLM will create a summary file for the Level-1, Level-2, and (if used) Level-3 variables called hlm2ssm.sts or hlm3ssm.sts. There will also be a file called createss.rsp containing the responses you entered to the interactive prompts. This file can be edited to change characteristics of the SSM file. It canb e run in batch mode (see below) to re-generate the SSM file. The sufficient statistics will be stored in a file called *.SSM (where *.SSM is the name of the file specified by the user). To create the SSM file in batch mode, first create the file containing responses or use a createss.rsp file generated from an earlier run. Then type the command hlm2 -R CREATESS.RSP (or the name of the batch file you have created).

Fitting Models in HLM

The next part of the procedure involves the modeling stage. This can be done either by entering responses interactively or by creating a file with the responses to the questions. Interactive analyses are carried out by typing

    hlm2 ssmfile   or   hlm3 ssmfile

where ssmfile is the name of the SSM file.

To use a file containing the responses, first create the file using any text editor. Responses are entered on separate lines. Then type

    hlm2 ssmfile comfile  or
    hlm3 ssmfile comfile

where ssmfile is the name of the SSM file and comfile is the name of the file containing responses to the questions. Sample comfiles are available in /usr/local/lib/hlm.

For detailed information on HLM, see the HLM online manual.