Cross-National Surveys of Learning Achievement: How Robust are the Findings?

Giorgina Brown, John Micklewright (), Sylke Schnepf () and Robert Waldmann ()
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Giorgina Brown: ISTAT, Rome

No 1652, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: International surveys of learning achievement and functional literacy are increasingly common. We consider two aspects of the robustness of their results. First, we compare results from four surveys: TIMSS, PISA, PIRLS and IALS. This contrasts with the standard approach which is to analyse a single survey with no regard as to whether it agrees or not with other sources. Second, we investigate whether results are sensitive to the choice of item response model used by survey organisers to aggregate respondents' answers. In both cases we focus on countries' average scores, the within-country differences in scores, and on the association between the two. There is mixed news to report.

Keywords: TIMSS; test scores; IALS; educational achievement; PISA; PIRLS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2005-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published - published in: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A (Statistics in Society), 2007, 170 (3), 623-646

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