This study investigates consistent and inconsistent respondents to mixed-worded questionnaire scales in large-scale assessments. Mixed-worded scales contain both positively and negatively worded items and are universally applied in different survey and content areas. Due to the changing wording, these scales require a more careful reading and…

Principals (policy makers) have debated the progress in U.S. student performance for a half century or more. Informing these conversations, survey agents have administered seven million psychometrically linked tests in math and reading in 160 waves to national probability samples of selected cohorts born between 1954 and 2007. This study is the…

Data mining has been successfully used by financial and retail companies since the mid-1960's to create predictive models and reveal unexpected relationships. However, it remains underutilized as a tool in educational research. Large-scale standardized assessment programs such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)…

The Student Background survey administered along with achievement tests in studies of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement includes scales of student motivation, competence, and attitudes toward mathematics and science. The scales consist of positively- and negatively keyed items. The current research…

This article presents a new perspective on measuring gender differences in the large-scale assessment study Trends in International Science Study (TIMSS). The suggested empirical model is directly based on the theoretical competence model of the domain mathematics and thus includes the interaction between content and cognitive sub-competencies.…

The paper attempts to investigate the influence of textbooks on the results of international assessments such as TIMSS [Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study] and PIRLS [Progress in International Reading Literacy Study]. It tries to consider the role and impact of school textbooks on PIRLS and TIMSS performance across countries. As…

Class size reduction policies have been widely implemented around the world in recent years. However, findings about the effects of class size on student achievement have been mixed. This study examines class size effects on fourth-grade mathematics achievement in 14 European countries using data from TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and…

Background: Large-scale cross-national studies designed to measure student achievement use different social, cultural, economic and other background variables to explain observed differences in that achievement. Prior to their inclusion into a prediction model, these variables are commonly scaled into latent background indices. To allow…

To understand the relationship between social background and sex in schooling, we use Bourdieu's theory of social reproduction and a feminist perspective of gender as practice. We pose two questions: (1) What is the relationship between economic and cultural capital and achievement for 4th-grade females versus males studying in Germany? (2) Is the…

Recently, performance profiles in reading, mathematics and science were created using the data collectively available in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2011. In addition, a classification of children to the end of their primary school years was…

In 19 (sub)samples from seven countries (United States, Austria, Germany, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Vietnam, Brazil), we analyzed the impact of parental education compared with wealth on the cognitive ability of children (aged 4-22 years, total N = 15,297). The background of their families ranged from poor indigenous remote villagers to academic…

Cross-language effects on reading skills are of particular interest in the context of foreign language immersion programs. Although there is an extensive literature on cross-language effects on reading in general, research focusing on immersion students and including different dimensions of reading acquisition such as reading fluency and reading…

"The United States' failure to educate its students leaves them unprepared to compete and threatens the country's ability to thrive in a global economy." Such was the dire warning recently issued by a task force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations. Chaired by former New York City schools chancellor Joel I. Klein and former U.S.…

During the transition from elementary school to secondary school, in Germany, students are assigned to different school tracks, academic or non-academic, that differ markedly in compositional and institutional characteristics, e.g., the level of cognitive activation and performance standards are higher in academic tracks than in non-academic…

Background: The dynamic model of educational effectiveness (DMEE) is a comprehensive theoretical framework including factors that are important for school learning, based on consistent findings within educational effectiveness research. Purpose: This study investigates the impact of teacher and school factors of DMEE on mathematics and science…