Previous studies differed largely in their findings concerning the relationship between principal leadership and students' mathematics achievement because of the complexity of principal leadership. As Hallinger and Heck's theoretical framework showed, principal leadership was comprised setting vision/goal, school management, and school climate…

This paper reports the results of an international comparative study conducted in Switzerland and Japan of an elementary school mathematics lesson. The principal aim of the study was to advance understanding of the cultural specificities of a mathematics lesson in its totality using concrete examples of lesson design and implementation and of how…

The authors' purpose was to examine the relationship between three forms of cultural capital--the embodied, the objectified, and the institutionalized--and student performance in mathematics and science. Their analysis of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2011 data from 32 countries and regions revealed that parental…

This paper studies the link between school facilities (buildings and grounds) and student achievement in eight countries using data from the TIMSS 2003 database. The results indicate a negative relationship, but the estimated coefficients are mainly insignificant. Interestingly, the coefficients differ heavily across countries. Whereas there seem…

Large-scale studies, such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), provide data to understand cross-national differences and similarities. In this study, we aimed to identify factors predicting mathematics achievement of Turkish students by comparing to Australian students. First, construct equivalence and item bias…

This study, through multilevel analyses of the data of four English-speaking nations (i.e., Canada, England, New Zealand and the United States) from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001 database, investigated the relationship between teachers' uses of various types of classroom assessments and their fourth-graders'…

Linking country-level educational achievement with other country-level indicators has the potential to drive systemic educational changes, as these correlates may reflect characteristics relevant for policy-making decisions to improve educational effectiveness. This study establishes a nomological network of educational achievement at the country…

The international and comparative education literature is not in agreement over the role of schools in student learning. The authors reexamine this debate across 25 diverse countries participating in the fourth-grade application of the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. The authors find the following: (a) In most cases,…

For more than 50 years, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) has been conducting comparative studies of educational achievement in a number of curriculum areas, including mathematics and science. TIMSS 2011 represents the fifth cycle of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS),…