Excellence gaps are differences in advanced education outcomes among student groups. This study replicates and extends an earlier study on the prevalence and magnitude of excellence gaps based on student sex and immigrant status using Grade 8 TIMSS data. Data were included for the 12 countries that have participated in each TIMSS administration…

Globally, the private school share of enrollment increased from about 14 percent in 2000 to about 18 percent in 2019. We estimate the systemic effect of private enrollment share on learning outcomes. Estimates of the systemic effect of private school enrollment capture any competitive effects as well as any differences between public and private…

Students' information and communication technology (ICT) skills have been shown to be a valuable resource for their educational performance, although to varying degrees across countries. Our paper adds to existing knowledge to understand how and why country-specific ICT characteristics make a difference to math performance benefits students glean…

Our study is among the first to provide a comprehensive review of cross-national patterns of gender differences in various STEM-related constructs--achievement, beliefs, attitudes, aspirations, and participation, concerning country-level gender equality. We complement our review with empirical analyses utilizing rigorous methodologies and richer…

This study aims to assess the mathematics literacy levels of 15-year-old students participating in the PISA-2022 test, considering the impacts of the frequency of digital device usage, and the influence of printed and digital learning resources in the educational context across Estonia, Finland, China (Hong Kong), Croatia, and Turkey during…

Mathematical achievement is affected by many psychosocial variables. Motivation and problem-solving, for instance, are important correlates. Although psychosocial variables are susceptible to cultural influences, most of the prior studies are based on samples obtained from Western populations. This highlights the need for cross-cultural…

This study examines the direct and indirect relationships between key motivational constructs and science achievement using TIMSS 2019 data sets for Japan, Norway, and the United States. The sample of the study includes 4,446 and 8,698 eighth graders in Japan and the United States, with 4,575 ninth graders in Norway. The structural equation model…

Purpose: Cross-cultural comparisons based on ordinal Likert-type rating scales have been threatened by response style which is systematic tendencies to respond to items regardless of the item content. So, this study aimed to investigate the effect of extreme response style and acquisance response style on TIMSS 2015 data. Method: The sample of…

This paper compares the learning gain over one year of schooling among 15-year-old students in Austria and Scotland (United Kingdom). Common metrics for reading, mathematics and science learning, as established by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), are used. In order to overcome the limitations of a cross-sectional,…

International comparisons of student achievement in mathematics and their attitudes towards, confidence with and anxiety to mathematics have a long history. Likewise, detailed international comparisons of teacher education programs have also been conducted. However, the relationship between the teacher education programs and teacher anxiety for…

I brought together two strands of literature, one investigating the moderate but persistent underachievement of girls in mathematics in most countries, and the other examining the role of self-efficacy and other self-beliefs in predicting behaviour and achievement. I implemented detailed decompositions of the gender mathematics gap, both at the…

This study examines the influence of family income on student achievement in mathematics utilising data from the parents' questionnaire for nine countries participating in the OECD's 2012 PISA study. It finds non-trivial effects for family income that were consistently larger than, or comparable to, the effects of more commonly used measures of…

Drawing on data from the fifth cycle of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the authors examined the relations of reported acculturation orientations--heritage as well as host culture-orientations--and perceived cultural distance between host and heritage culture with academic performance among 399 first- and second-generation…

Student achievement varies widely across developed countries, but the source of these differences is not well understood. One obvious candidate, and a major focus of research and policy discussions both in the United States and abroad, is teacher quality. Research and common sense tell that good teachers can have a tremendous impact on their…

The underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related fields remains a concern for educators and the scientific community. Gender differences in mathematics and science achievement play a role, in conjunction with attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs. We report results from the 2011 Trends in…