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Comparative and International Education Research Made Easy Using Free Online Data Platforms and Tools

Sat, February 18, 9:30am to 12:30pm EST (9:30am to 12:30pm EST), Grand Hyatt Washington, Floor: Constitution Level (3B), Latrobe

Group Submission Type: Pre-conference Workshop

Description of Session

There are several data platforms and tools that are free and publicly available online for conducting comparative and international education research. However, many people are either not aware of these or are not sure which to use to answer specific research questions. These online data platforms and tools vary considerably in content, functionality, data visualization capabilities, and data availability. The primary objective of this workshop is to teach participants how to use these effectively. The workshop will focus on three platforms/tools, which have been developed with funding from the International Activities Branch at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), U.S. Department of Education:

The ILSA Gateway is a free platform that, for the first time, provides researchers a single entry point to major international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) in education conducted by the following organizations: CONFEMEN (PASEC), the IDB (PRIDI), the IEA (ICCS, ICILS, PIRLS, REDS, TEDS-M, and TIMSS), the OECD (IELS, PIAAC, PISA, TALIS, and TALIS Starting Strong), SACMEQ (SACMEQ Study), SEAMEO/UNICEF (SEA PLM), UNESCO (REDS, TERCE), and the World Bank (STEP). For each study, users can navigate to a fact sheet that provides a quick overview; read more detailed information on the study’s framework, design, results, data, etc.; and easily access the related resources on the external study websites. The platform features a glossary, search tool, news section, and paper database, of which the last allows researchers to identify relevant articles published to date in peer-reviewed journals, including secondary analyses of the above-mentioned study data.

The International Data Explorer (IDE) allows users to explore student and adult performance on ILSAs and explore thousands of variables derived from survey questionnaires administered to the students or adults and to the students’ teachers and principals. Data are available for over 100 countries. With the IDE, users can select their own countries and variables for analysis, run a variety of statistical tests (e.g., crosstabulations, significance testing of means and percentages, gap analysis, regression analysis), and generate customizable tables, charts, and maps. The IDE includes data for all years from PIAAC, PIRLS, PISA, ICILS, TALIS, and TIMSS.

The Country Profiles and Comparisons tool provides contextual data for about 80 countries. Users can examine and compare countries on about 75 key indicators grouped into several categories: International Assessment, Population, Economy, Education Expenditure, Education System, and Government. Users can examine many indicators for a small number of countries, examine a few indicators for many countries, and toggle between these two view options. The data come from multiple sources, such as the ILSAs coordinated by IEA and OECD, OECD’s Education at a Glance, the World Bank Databank, and the CIA World Factbook.

Throughout the workshop, the leaders will provide hands-on examples of how research questions in comparative and international education can be addressed using the various online data platforms and tools. It is recommended that participants bring their own laptops to follow along with the hands-on demonstrations and explore their own research questions. Some knowledge about quantitative research methods is helpful but not necessary.

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