The IEA International Research Conferences

There are in fact two things, science and opinion;
the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.
Hippocrates (460 BC - 377 BC)

Through almost fifty years of research studies of cross-national achievements, IEA has contributed substantially to the development of a world-wide community of researchers in educational evaluation. Except for the period of participation in the study, they do not have many opportunities to exchange ideas, approaches, findings and concerns. The goal of the conference was to foster collaboration among researchers working with data from IEA studies.

Once a study is completed and the first round of international reports is published, the international database is released for a broad community of researchers, giving those interested an opportunity for further analysis. The major strength of IEA studies is that they are curriculum-anchored and grade-based, thereby making it possible to investigate linkages between students’ achievements and a wide range of variables. Those variables can be related, among others, to instructional practices, to the opportunity to learn, to backgrounds and attitudes of students and teachers or to school organization.