The international comparative studies in 1959 were conducted by International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) researchers who recognized that differences in student achievement measures in mathematics across countries could be caused by differences in curricula. The measurements of opportunity to learn (OTL) grew…

This supplement describes national adaptations made to the international version of the TIMSS 2011 background questionnaires. This information provides users with a guide to evaluate the availability of internationally comparable data for use in secondary analyses involving the TIMSS 2011 background variables. Background questionnaire adaptations…

Since 1969, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been the common yardstick for measuring the progress of students' education over time across the country. Teachers, principals, parents, policymakers, and researchers all use NAEP results to assess progress and develop ways to improve education in America. To make the…

Primary school data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) were analyzed in this study to examine performance difference between third and fourth grades. The score comparison was conducted across all TIMSS items in each of the 26 participating countries. The empirical findings indicate that not all TIMSS items have…

Disentangled sources of differential item functioning (DIF) in a multilanguage assessment for which multiple factors were expected to be causing DIF. Data for the Third International Mathematics and Science study for four countries and two languages (3,000 to 11,000 cases in each comparison group) reveal amounts and sources of DIF. (SLD)

International comparative educational studies make use of test instruments originally developed in English by international panels of experts, but that are ultimately administered in the language of instruction of the students. The comparability of the different language versions of these assessments is a critical issue in validating the…

Diagnostic analyses were conducted on data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study second population (TIMSS-R; 1999) from the United States, Korea, and the Czech Republic in terms of test item attributes (i.e., content, processing skills, and item format) and inferred students' knowledge. The Rule Space model (K. Tatsuoka, 1998)…

Middle school data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) are analyzed in this study to compare achievement differences between adjacent grades. To facilitate this computer-based analysis, a Statistical Analysis System (SAS) program has been developed to transpose matrices of the item scores in more than 40 countries.…

Examined whether changes in format of mathematics items in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) had any effect on gender differences in performance using a Swedish sample of 8,851 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Results show no significant changes in gender differences when item format is altered. (SLD)

Describes the development of the performance assessment tasks of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. The challenge was to produce tasks that would measure the achievement of curricular objectives while being sufficiently reliable to allow comparisons between countries and of groups within countries. (SLD)