In Ireland, while, on average, students have performed well on national and international assessments of mathematics and science, the low proportions of high achievers in these subjects are noteworthy. Given these patterns and the multifaceted benefits in individual and societal terms that expertise in mathematics and science has been associated…

Background: Large-scale cross-national studies designed to measure student achievement use different social, cultural, economic and other background variables to explain observed differences in that achievement. Prior to their inclusion into a prediction model, these variables are commonly scaled into latent background indices. To allow…

Background: The present study investigates what factors related to the school context influence student achievement on TIMSS mathematics tests across countries. A systematic review of the literature on PIRLS, TIMSS, and ICCS was conducted upstream to identify those school, teacher, and classroom factors shown to be useful predictors of student…