The current volume, Advances in Latent Variable Mixture Models, contains chapters by all of the speakers who participated in the 2006 CILVR conference, providing not just a snapshot of the event, but more importantly chronicling the state of the art in latent variable mixture model research. The volume starts with an overview chapter by the CILVR conference keynote speaker, Bengt Muthen, offering a "lay of the land" for latent variable mixture models before the volume moves to more specific constellations of topics. Part I, Multilevel and Longitudinal Systems, deals with mixtures for data that are hierarchical in nature either due to the data's sampling structure or to the repetition of measures (of varied types) over time. Part II, Models for Assessment and Diagnosis, addresses scenarios for making judgments about individuals' state of knowledge or development, and about the instruments used for making such judgments. Finally, Part III, Challenges in Model Evaluation, focuses on some...