creator: Beaton, Albert E.
description- – This guide to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is designed to help the secondary data analyst use the NAEP and to introduce some of the sophisticated technology used by the NAEP. The NAEP has been gathering information on American students since 1969. It samples populations that consist of all students in U.S. schools, both public and private, at grades 4, 8, and 12, as well as ages 9, 13, and 17. NAEP data are designed for measuring trends in student performance over time and for cross-sectional analyses of the correlates of performance. Since the introduction of the Trial State Assessments in 1990, the NAEP has also been used to compare the performances of students in participating states. All data collected by the NAEP are available for the secondary user. This primer, which assumes that the user has a working knowledge of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, gets the user started on the simplified database and introduces a few special features of the NAEP. The examples use a set of 1,000 eighth graders assessed in mathematics. These mini-files are used to illustrate several basic NAEP analyses. Five appendixes present file layouts and variable information, as well as a guide to using the attached primer computer disk. (Contains 28 figures, 2 tables, and 46 references.) (SLD)
subjectcollectiondatepublishercreator description- – The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is the largest and most ambitious study undertaken by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Forty-five countries collected data in more than 30 languages. Five grade levels were tested in the two subject areas, so that more than half a million students were tested around the world. This report addresses middle-school mathematics achievement (grades seven and eight) in six content areas: (1) fractions and number sense; (2) measurement; (3) proportionality; (4) data representation, analysis, and probability; (5) geometry; and (6) algebra. Results cover 41 countries with complete data collection. Singapore was the top-performing country at both grade levels, with Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong also performing very well. There were large differences in average achievement between top performers and bottom performing nations. Gender differences in mathematics achievement were small or nearly nonexistent in most countries, but when they did appear, they favored boys. In nearly every country there was a strong positive relationship between student enjoyment of mathematics and higher achievement. Home factors were strongly related to mathematics achievement in every participating country, but relationships between instructional variables and achievement were less clear. In every country, the pattern was for the eighth grade student whose parents had more education to also have higher achievement in mathematics. The amount of television viewing was negatively associated with mathematics achievement. The document's introduction provides information on each country's characteristics including demographics, public expenditures on education, organization of educational system. Chapters address: (1) International Student Achievement in Mathematics; (2) Average Achievement; (3) Performance on Items within Each Mathematics Content Area; (4) Students Backgrounds and Attitudes towards Mathematics; and (5) Teachers and Instruction. Appendixes include: Overview of TIMSS Procedures; Test-Curriculum Matching Analysis; Selected Mathematics Achievement Eighth-Grade Results for the Philippines, Denmark, Sweden, and German-Speaking Switzerland; and Percentiles and Standard Deviations of Mathematics Achievement. (SLD)
subjectcollectiondatepublishercreator description- – A recently completed landmark study of mathematics and science education in more than 40 countries gathered information that can help address questions as to why students in one country do better in math and science than students in another. This report focuses on the results of the primary school science test of students in 26 countries, from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS). Details of how the study was conducted, the nature of the science test, country characteristics, differences in student achievement, student achievement by science content area, and an analysis of example problems are included. Ideas of intended and implemented curricula are discussed and a number of questions related to these ideas that TIMMS may answer are listed. (DDR)
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