How do international assessments deal with the fact that educational systems are so different—for example, students start school at different ages, are tracked or streamed differently, etc?
Target populations are comparable across countries. The fact that education systems are different across countries is one of the main reasons we are interested in making comparisons across countries. However, these differences make it important to carefully designate the populations to be compared, so that comparisons are as fair and valid as possible. Depending in large part on when students first start school, students at a given age may have less or more schooling in different countries, and, students in a given grade may be of different ages in different countries. In TIMSS the two target populations are defined as follows: all students enrolled in the grade that represents 4 years of schooling—fourth grade in most countries–providing that the mean age at the time of testing is at least 9.5 years, and; all students enrolled in the grade that represents 8 years of schooling—eighth grade in most countries—providing that the mean age at the time of testing is at least 13.5 years. At
Related Questions
- How do international assessments deal with the fact that educational systems are so different—for example, students start school at different ages, are tracked or streamed differently, etc?
- How do international assessments deal with the fact that education systems around the world are so different?
- How will these recommendations provide educational continuity for international program students?
