TIMSS Advanced 2008
What is TIMSS Advanced?
First administered in 16 countries in 1995, TIMSS Advanced assesses school-leaving students with special preparation in advanced mathematics and physics. Countries that participated in 1995 can determine whether the achievement of students having taken advanced coursework has changed. Countries participating in TIMSS Advanced for the first time can assess their comparative standing in advanced mathematics and physics in an international context.
Content
The advanced mathematics assessment covers the content areas of Algebra, Calculus, and Geometry. The physics assessment measures four content areas: Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, Heat and Temperature, and Atomic and Nuclear Physics.
Target Population
For advanced mathematics, the target population comprises students in their final year of secondary school who are taking or have taken advanced mathematics courses. For physics, the target population comprises final-year students who are taking or have taken advanced physics courses. Depending on the size of the country and the percentages of students in these courses or tracks/programs, the size of the target population can vary from country to country. The representative sample for most countries will involve minimum of 120 schools and approximately 2,000 students from each target population, allowing the same schools to be selected for both populations where appropriate.
TIMSS Advanced is also offered for students entering tertiary education in countries which prefer to assess students, who took advanced programs, when they start third level education several months later. The sample should be selected from students who have had advanced preparation in mathematics and/or physics and are enrolled in identifiable programs, courses, or institutions. A representative sample will involve approximately 2,000 for each subject.
Participating Educational Systems
Following educational systems participate in TIMSS Advanced 2008: Armenia, Italy, Iran, Lebanon, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Sweden.
Schedule
TIMSS Advanced 2008 was initiated in May 2006 (First meeting of the National Research Coordinators). The Field Test took place February-March 2007 and the Main Data Collection for the final year of secondary school was conducted in August-December 2007 for the Southern Hemisphere countries and will take place March-June 2008 for the Northern Hemisphere. For the tertiary level, data will be collected September-November 2008. The International report will be released in December 2009.
Management
TIMSS Advanced 2008 is coordinated by the TIMSS and PIRLS International Study Center located at Boston College, United States. The study Co-directors are Dr Michael Martin and Dr Ina Mullis. Other members of the TIMSS Advanced consortium are the IEA Secretariat and the IEA Data Processing Center, Statistics Canada, and the Educational Testing Service.
Cost
Special support for TIMSS Advanced 2008 was provided by Chinese Taipei and Norway.The international participation fee is US$60,000 per year for four years.
For more information please contact: http://timss.bc.edu/
International Press Release
International release results for IEA's TIMSS Advanced 2008 can be found at the TIMSS Advanced 2008 website.
Download information about TIMSS Advanced 2008 results.
© 2007 IEA