"If custom and law define what is educationally allowable within a nation, the educational systems beyond one’s national boundaries suggest what is educationally possible."
Arthur W. Foshay in: Educational Achievement of Thirteen-year-Olds in Twelve Countries
IEA became a legal entity in 1967, but its origins date back to 1958 when a group of scholars, educational psychologists, sociologists and psychometricians met at the UNESCO Institute for Education in Hamburg to discuss problems of school and student evaluation. They argued that effective evaluation requires not only consideration of the inputs to education and the conditions under which schooling is conducted but also examination of such educational outcomes as knowledge, attitude and participation. The group strongly rejected data-free assertions about the relative merits of various educational systems. They also wanted to go beyond generating a set of performance indicators that would merely establish the well-being or otherwise of a school system, to identify those factors that would have meaningful and consistent influences on educational outcomes.
The founders of IEA viewed the world as a natural educational laboratory, where different school systems experiment in different ways to obtain optimal results in the education of their youth. They contended that while different countries give similar definitions to these 'optimal results', they tend to employ different methods that could be compared, to achieve common ends. The founders assumed that if research could obtain evidence from across a wide range of systems, there would probably be sufficient variability to permit the revelation of important relationships that would escape detection within a single educational system.
The First Studies
The very first IEA study was intended to investigate the feasibility of undertaking more extensive investigations of educational achievement. This study, known as Pilot Twelve-Country Study, was conducted in 1959–62 with samples of 13-year-old students in 12 countries. Testing was carried out in five areas: mathematics, reading comprehension, geography, science, and non-verbal ability. The study produced findings of academic and practical value, but more importantly it demonstrated the feasibility of conducting large-scale, cross-national surveys. It also showed that several research centers could work together effectively and that it is possible to construct common tests and questionnaires that 'work' cross-culturally. Furthermore, the study revealed that the effects of language differences can be minimized through the careful translation of instruments.
The encouraging outcomes of this study gave impetus to undertake a larger study that employed an improved sampling procedure and a longer test to cover what should have been learned in school by a particular level of schooling. The subject matter selected was mathematics, a field of schooling with minimal dependence on the languages of instruction. Twelve countries participated in this First International Mathematics Study (FIMS). They collected data in 1964 on two populations-13-year-olds and students at the pre-university year. The study identified several different factors influencing both the learning and teaching of mathematics. 'Opportunity to learn' (that is, the way a subject is actually taught in the classroom as against how its instruction is prescribed in the official curriculum syllabus) was found to be a remarkably good predictor of systematic differences in student performance. The study also showed that all school systems suffer to some extent from lack of equity between different groups of students.
One major question that arose from the FIMS study was: To what extent were identified factors unique to mathematics or generalizable to other subject areas? The logical consequence of this question was for IEA to conduct a third study, or rather group of studies, in which they examined six different curriculum subjects: reading comprehension, science, literature, French as a foreign language, English as a foreign language, and civic education. The researchers made two changes to the target population. First, they added a primary school target population — 10-year-olds. Second, they moved the middle school population from 13 to 14 years of age, because by that time nearly all participating countries were keeping children in full-time compulsory education up to the end of 14 years. The Six Subject Study, conducted in 1970-71, helped to identify several new predictors of student achievement related to interests, motivation and attitudes, methods of teaching and school practices, and others.
In 1970, IEA also organized the seminar on Curriculum Development and Evaluation in Gränna, Sweden. Researchers and curriculum experts from 23 countries participated. It is often said that this seminar had a major influence on curriculum development in at least two-thirds of the countries that attended.
Periodic Studies
In the late 1970s, the idea emerged that periodic studies of the key subject areas would allow IEA to follow changes in education and possibly introduce into their investigations a longitudinal component with respect to student performance. During 1980–81, IEA conducted the Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS), with 20 countries participating, and in 1983–84 carried out the Second International Science Study (SISS), with 24 countries. Both studies tested three populations of students. This strategy of carrying out a repeated study over an interval of several years provided important information on changes in standard of achievement in different countries, especially in the case of science.
While SISS was a deliberate replication of FISS (see Six Subject Study), SIMS incorporated a small, short-term longitudinal component. The Classroom Environment Study (1981–83) then adopted the idea of observing student progress over a longer period of time. With both of these latter studies, attempts were made to test the same students on two occasions. However, it became evident that measuring over only two points of time was not enough to yield the information needed to estimate accurately the effects of schools and teaching behaviors on educational achievement. Instead, performance needed to be measured across at least three or four time periods.
By the beginning of the 1980s more and more children in the IEA educational systems were being enrolled in pre-primary education. There was a strong feeling that much more should be known about the cognitive, attitudinal, social and emotional development of children in different pre-school settings, including that of home. This consideration led to a new study—Preprimary Education (PPP). This longitudinal study began in 1986 and was completed in 2003.
In 1985, IEA conducted the Written Composition study to complement the data on reading comprehension and literature collected by the Six-Subject Study. The years 1990–91 saw the data collection phase of the Reading Literacy Study. Thirty-one countries participated in this study, which tested two populations of students (9- and 14-year-olds). Reading Literacy provided a descriptive picture of the student reading achievement and voluntary reading activities of students as well as of related policies and practices. It also produced a valid international test for investigating reading development and provided national baseline data for monitoring literacy levels over time.
The 1990s brought new challenges and IEA met them with new studies. As a result of government programs, computers began to play a more significant role in school education. The two-phase Computers in Education Study (COMPED), conducted in 1989 and 1992, showed that greater attention needed to be given to how computers could be used in schools to improve the quality of instruction and the efficiency and effectiveness of student learning.
Continuing interest of the IEA countries in ICT resulted in the Second Information Technology in Education Study (SITES). SITES Module 1 (Indicators Module) with 26 countries participating consisted of a short school survey (primary, middle and secondary school level) on computer technology resources, utilization of these resources and their integration into the instructional process. The respondents were school principals and school information technology coordinators. Data was collected in 1999. SITES Module 2 (Innovative Practices Module) was a qualitative study aiming at finding innovative pedagogical practices using information and communication technology. During 2001-02, 174 case studies presenting such practices were collected in 28 participating countries.
The political changes, resulting from the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Central-Eastern Europe, raised many new questions concerning education of the 'good citizen'. IEA therefore undertook the Second Civic Education Study (CIVED) to investigate civic knowledge and attitudes of youngsters as well as related policies and practices. Phase 1 of the study, with 22 participants, including nine former communist countries, was completed in 1996–97. The survey of 14-year-olds took place in 1999 and of upper-secondary students in 2000.
Another study, aimed at providing regularly collected information to meet the demands of the late 1990s, was the Languages in Education Study (LES). Twenty-four countries participated in its first phase (1995–96), which resulted in the collection of data on second and foreign language education and language polices in respect to four languages: English, French, German and Spanish. Unfortunately, Phase 2 of the study – the student survey – attracted no funding and this project had to be abandoned.
Continuous Evolution
In 1995, IEA completed data collection for the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Forty-five countries participated in TIMSS, with more than half a million students encompassing five grades tested. The overall aims of the study were to measure the mathematics and science achievement in the various target populations and to identify the major in- and out-of-school determinants of the educational outcomes. IEA also carried out a special sub-study of mathematics and science curricula in these countries.
At the time, TIMSS was the largest and most ambitious study of comparative education undertaken. It was made possible by virtue of IEA experience and expertise, developed through the years of consecutive studies, which saw research vision combining with practical needs as defined by educational policy-makers. TIMSS 1995 contributed to stabilization of the IEA cycle of studies in mathematics, science and reading literacy. The subsequent data collection for TIMSS (at present known as Trends in Mathematics and Science Study) took place in 1999, 2003 and 2007.
In 2001 data was collected for the Progress in Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) followed by PIRLS 2006. In 2011 both PIRLS and TIMSS international assessments will be conducted. This cycle will provide a unique opportunity for international assessment at the fourth grade. Countries participating in both PIRLS and TIMSS at the fourth grade will be able to take advantage of a comprehensive assessment of reading, mathematics, and science, with a rich array of contextual background information.
The IEA cycle of studies in basic school subjects attracts an increasing number of countries from all around the world. In TIMSS 2007 more than 60 educational systems participated. In PIRLS 2006 there were 40 countries. More than 40 educational systems participate in PIRLS 2006 and more than 60 joined TIMSS 2007. Several of them are also ‘newcomers’ to the international assessment, many are representing low- and middle-income countries whose social, political and economic situation differs much from traditional IEA studies participants. This requires development of new ways of working to ensure that all systems can benefit. In response to this challenge IEA increases its training offered. This includes assistance on a various steps of study preparation and implementation, using the database and assisting researchers to address with the IEA data more fundamental questions, relevant to their educational systems.
Results of TIMSS increased interest in the teacher preparation policies and practices around the world. In 2002 preparations for the Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) began. The main goal of the study is to examine how much teacher preparation policies, programs and practices contribute to the capability to teach mathematics in elementary and lower secondary schools (grades 4 and 8).
Studies develop also in other areas of interests for the IEA members. 2006 saw continuation of the SITES project. After about a ten-year period of investments in many countries to promote the use of ICT in national education systems, SITES 2006 will ask about their impact. The major questions of the study were: To what extent and how is ICT used in education and how does it support and enhance pedagogical practices?
Also in 2005 the work was initiated on preparation of the new International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS). The purpose of this study is to investigate the ways in which young people are prepared to undertake their roles as citizens in a range of countries. While ICCS permits comparisons with the CIVED 1999 project, it also broadens the scope of research and introduces some new elements. The novelty is addition of regional modules (European, Latin American and Asian modules) in order to address questions important in their specific contexts. The study includes eighth-grade students, with the option for interested countries to also include grade 9. The data was collected in Southern Hemisphere countries in 2008/2009. International and regional reports will be published in 2010.
To facilitate further opportunities for secondary analysis of the IEA data, IEA decided to organize research conferences every two years presenting papers based on the IEA data. The first conference took place in 2004, in Cyprus and was followed by 2006 conference in Washington D.C. and 2008 conference in Taipei. IEA also two awards to recognize high quality empirical research that makes use of IEA data: Richard M. Wolf Award for the author(s) of paper or book and Bruce H. Choppin Award for outstanding Master’s thesis or doctoral dissertations. The intention of the Awards is to encourage and promote outstanding research conducted by postgraduate students and establish researchers that work with IEA data.
A Unique Network
The IEA's first offices were in Hamburg (1959–69) and Stockholm (1970–89). In 1990, the association established the permanent Secretariat in the Netherlands, initially in The Hague, and since 1996 in Amsterdam with seven employees. IEA Data Processing and Research Center (DPC) located in Hamburg, employ on the permanent basis more than 100 persons and provide various services to the IEA studies and projects of other international and national organizations.
Since the late 1950s, the membership of the IEA has grown from the initial 12 to current list of 66 educational research institutes, ranging from universities to ministries of education. More that 20 non-member countries participate in various IEA projects. IEA partners in financing its projects include governments of the member countries, private foundations, and other international institutions, including US National Center for Educational Statistics, the World Bank, The Inter-American Development Bank, United Nations Development Program for Arab Countries, and the European Commission.
The IEA is an important pillar of the international education community: a unique network of scholars, researchers and policy-makers working together to prepare and conduct studies on educational achievement worldwide.
IEA Founding Fathers
Arnold Anderson (USA)
Benjamin Bloom (USA)
Arthur Foshay (USA)
Fernand Hotyat (BEL)
Thorsten Husén (SWE)
Gaston Mialaret (FRA)
Harry Passow (USA)
Douglas Pidgeon (ENG)
Walter Schultze (GER)
Moshe Smilansky (USA)
Martii Takala (FIN)
Robert Thorndike (USA)
Dawid Walker (SCO)
William Wall (ENG)
© 2007 IEA