TIMSS 2019: The Seventh Cycle, 24 Years of Trend Data, and Transition to Digital Assessment

• In Event: TIMSS and PIRLS: The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's Global Benchmarks of Achievement

Abstract

"TIMSS is the world’s longest running and most comprehensive global assessment of students’ achievement in mathematics and science. Directed by the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center at Boston College, TIMSS is the flagship study of IEA. Countries can benefit from the TIMSS data as they work to prepare youth for a world in which both mathematics and science play an increasingly important role in helping to solve global challenges. In 2019, 64 countries and 8 benchmarking systems participated in TIMSS and, altogether nearly 600,000 students were assessed. The TIMSS mathematics and science assessments are based on countries’ shared expectations of what students should know and be able to do and included almost 1,000 mathematics and science achievement. About half of the participating countries administered the eTIMSS digital version of the assessment.
This presentation will summarize the main findings from TIMSS 2019. In addition to countries’ average achievement, TIMSS reports achievement at four international benchmarks – Low, Intermediate, High, and Advanced. For the 58 countries that participated at the fourth grade, 92 percent of students across countries reached the Low Benchmark in both subjects, but only 6-7 percent reached the Advanced Benchmark. At eighth grade, 85-87 percent of students across 39 countries reached the Low Benchmark and 5-7 percent the Advanced Benchmark. Long-term trends (since 1995) show more improvements than declines in mathematics and science achievement at fourth and eighth grades. TIMSS collects extensive information about the home and school environments and students’ learning experiences for students, their teachers and school principals, and in fourth grade from their parents. Using these data, TIMSS has shown, for example, that students had higher average achievement when they had more educational resources in the home and parents that engaged them in early learning activities. Also, students that attended schools with a higher emphasis on academic success and that were safe and orderly had higher average achievement.
The TIMSS 2019 transition to digital assessment enabled TIMSS to included more interactive and innovative item types that engage students. This presentation also will include highlights from the recently released Findings from the TIMSS 2019 Problem Solving and Inquiry Tasks. The results of four Problem-Solving and Inquiry tasks will be highlighted to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of using dynamic, interactive features and extended scenarios to assess higher order skills.
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Author

• Ina V.S. Mullis, Boston College