The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) conducts large-scale international assessments of student achievement to support countries' efforts to monitor and improve education. IEA has a worldwide network of over 70 member countries and institutions that cooperate on studies conducted every few years, including the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). IEA aims to provide comparative data, promote evidence-based policy dialogue, and encourage knowledge sharing to improve education globally.

1. IEA
International Large Scale Assessments

2. Table of contents
•Our mission
•Our network
•Our goals
•Implementing our studies
•Our current studies & new developments
•Conclusions

3. International Association for the
Evaluation of Educational Achievement
(IEA)Mission
IEA is a non-governmental, non-profit cooperative of national research institutions and
governmental research agencies that originated in Hamburg, Germany in 1958.
IEA develops and conducts high-quality, large-scale comparative studies in education to
support countries’ efforts to engage in national strategies for educational monitoring and
improvement.
IEA continues to promote capacity building and knowledge sharing to foster innovation and
quality in education. IEA studies inspire fruitful dialogue on critical educational issues facing
the sector today, informing the development of evidence-based policies and practices across
the globe.

4. A Worldwide Network
IEA draws on the collective strength of its institutional
members.
Most of these represent a national system of education,
and all are associated with a strong research tradition
linking educational researchers and practitioners.

5. A Worldwide Network
• Armenia • Australia • Austria • Belgium (Flemish) •
Belgium (French) • Botswana • Brazil • Bulgaria • Canada •
Chile • People’s Republic of China • Chinese Taipei •
Colombia • Croatia • Cyprus • Czech Republic • Denmark •
Egypt • England • Estonia • Finland • France • Georgia •
Germany • Greece • Hong Kong SAR • Hungary • Iceland •
Indonesia • Iran • Ireland • Israel • Italy • Japan • Jordan •
Kazakhstan • Republic of Korea • Kuwait • Latvia •
Lithuania • Luxembourg • Macedonia • Malaysia • Mexico
• Morocco • Netherlands • New Zealand • Norway •
Palestine • Philippines • Poland • Portugal • Qatar •
Romania • Russian Federation • Singapore • Slovak
Republic • Slovenia • South Africa • Spain • Sweden •
Thailand • Turkey • United Arab Emirates • United States

6. Our goals
• provide a forum for cooperation, development, and
implementation of comparative studies in education
IEA studies are joint ventures, relying on a spirit of cooperation
between partners to achieve common goals.
• promote and advance an evidence-based global dialogue on
access and equity in education
IEA’s studies are an important data source for those working to
enhance student learning at the international, national, and local
levels.
• encourage the exchange of knowledge, expertise and insights to
improve the provision of quality education worldwide
IEA has, over the past 55 years, built an international network of
scholars, researchers, policy analysts, and technical experts in the field
of large-scale educational research.

7. Why international assessments
• Monitor the effectiveness of educational systems in a global context.
• Evaluate progress in educational achievement over time from both international
and national perspectives.
• Work towards closing gaps in educational achievement and achieve equity
among ethnic, social, or regional groups.
• Examine educational achievement and growth in learning outcomes from
primary through secondary school.
• Use the international database to research the factors associated with high
learning outcomes.

8. Why international assessments
• Benchmarking function
– Provide comparable indicators on student
performance and schooling practices across
countries
• Analytic function
– Suggest hypotheses about
• relationships between student performance and factors
that might influence performance
• areas where students have particular strengths or
weaknesses

9. IEA Studies‘ design
IEA Studies are
• imbedded in school structure (grade based)
• curriculum based
IEA Studies consider the processes and products of
education:
Focus on Content and Cognitive Domains
Capture school, teacher, student, parent context
Have a wide focus (grade levels and subjects)
Follow a Trend Design
Include regional options

10. IEA Studies’ design
Use curriculum as the major organizing concept. IEA studies are investigating:
 the intended curriculum (what society intends for students to learn and how the
education system should be organized to facilitate this learning)
- Thorough review of countries’ curricula
- Thorough review of assessment materials involving all countries
- Test curriculum matching analysis
 the implemented curriculum (what is actually taught in classrooms)
- Teachers are asked what and how they taught students
 the achieved curriculum (what students have learned and what they think about these
subjects).
- The assessment results are broken down by subjects, areas, and
cognitive processes
- In-depth analysis of mismatches between countries’ curricula and student
achievement

11. Influence on the curriculum
• Then it is up to the ministries and policy makers to
decide if this is what they want and what is desired
for their country
• Countries then might decide on
– changes in the curriculum
– policies to change the implementation of the
curriculum (for example in-service teacher training
programs, or the teacher education)

12. IEA Studies design (cont)
Keeping continuity with the past and relevance to the change
Linking assessments over time
- using the same set of items in successive assessments
- restricting changes in design
- employing statistics that allow putting data from successive
assessments on a common scale (IRT scaling)
- interpreting results cautiously
Bridging study
- some students surveyed under old or new procedures
Framework development
- maintaining strong connection to constructs fundamental for the
study subject
- reflecting results of previous data collection and other studies
- responding to emerging questions and needs

13. Implementing IEA Studies
International Study Centers
Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), Australia •
Boston College, USA • Educational Testing Service (ETS), USA •
Michigan State University, USA • National Foundation for
Educational Research (NFER), UK • Roma Tre University, Italy
National Study Centers
IEA Secretariat
IEA DPC
International advisory committees of scholars, researchers,
policy analysts, and technical experts

14. Implementing IEA Studies (cont)
Source of data
administering assessment of student achievement in one or
more school subjects or within an interdisciplinary area of
learning (TEST BOOKLETS).
collecting extensive, internationally comparable information
on the background characteristics of participating students
and their parents, teachers and schools in order to allow a
relation of students’ background and school environments
with their performance (QUESTIONNAIRES).

15. Current IEA studies

16. IEA TIMSS
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
Assesses the mathematics and science achievement of
grade 4, grade 8, and grade 12 students (grade-based
assessment)
Conducted every four years since 1995 in up to 70
countries
TIMSS 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015
Participants 45 38 50 59 63 ~ 70

17. Current cycle
TIMSS Numeracy 2015
o For countries where students are still developing fundamental
mathematics knowledge, skills, procedures and problem solving
strategies; students assessed are in grade 4th, 5th, or 6th
TIMSS Advanced 2015
o Assesses final-year secondary students' achievement in advanced
mathematics and physics, or as an option offered in 2015 for the first
time, at the start of their STEM coursework in universities.

18. IEA PIRLS
Progress in International Reading Literacy Study
o Assesses reading ability of 4th-graders (at the time of moving
from „Learning to Read“ to „Reading to Learn“)
o Conducted every five years since 2001 in up to 60 countries
PIRLS Literacy
o assessment of foundational reading skills
ePIRLS
o innovative online assessment of reading achievement;
designed to be responsive to the information age

19. IEA ICCS
International Civic and Citizenship Education Study
o Investigates the knowledge and understanding of
civics and citizenship of 8th-graders
o The second cycle is currently being conducted in 24
countries

20. IEA ICILS
International Computer and Information Literacy Study
o Assesses computer literacy competencies of grade 8
students
o Conducted in 21 educational systems

21. New developments
• ICT literacy has become a major emphasis in more and more countries
• Schools are equipped with computers and their use is embedded in the
teaching and learning
eTIMSS will assess the students’ science knowledge in a
computer-based environment.

22. Data for School Effectiveness Research
In spite of limitations, large-scale assessments have a
great potential to study school effectiveness
A great range of educational factors can be examined
Major endeavor: TIMSS+PIRLS Relationships Report
(published in October 2013)
How do homes support literacy and numeracy?
Are schools more effective in different subjects?
What are the characteristics of effective schools in reading,
mathematics, and science?

23. Result Highlights from TIMSS/PIRLS
2011
Strength
High Benchmark
Mathematics – 82%
Reading – 67%
Science – 46%
High Benchmark
All Three – 39%
Low Benchmark
All Three – 97%

24. Capacity building
• Assessment is not a goal in itself
• Secondary analysis to understand educational systems
• IEA emphasizes capacity building in the countries
to
• find what works in the country context
• find answers to pressing policy questions
• find differences within the country
• find ways to improve the educational system
• Opportunities: all data available for download;
software support for analysis; seminars for
countries’ researchers or practitioners

25. IEA data
All data can be downloaded for free at
http://rms.iea-dpc.org/

26. Tools for analyzing the data
The IEA has developed the IEA IDB Analyzer - a plug-in for
SPSS (for free at http://www.iea.nl/data.html)

27. What makes us unique
• Unique international assessment in primary school
• Methodology/design/framework independently defined
• High integrity of the IEA activity
• Long-term cycle of studies track changes in curriculum and instructional practices,
enabling countries to measure progress over time and identify issues relevant to reform
efforts
• E-assessment supports paper-based assessment
• Strong network of long-term expertise to leverage. NRCs are integral to the studies’
development process. IEA studies start up national research teams and build capacity
that didn’t previously exist.

28. Thank you!