Imagine a basic two-level (varying intercept) mixed-effects model, such as test scores for students clustered in classrooms.  Packages like lme4 provide an estimate of the higher-level variance.

When reporting that higher-level variance, I have seen authors mention both:

1. the variance of the "random effect"

or alternatively:

2. the variance of the "random effects"

I know which seems right to me, but I'd be curious to hear opinions on the proper way to write up commentary on the higher-level variance.
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