A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

TIMSS: A "Power Tool" for School Reform

In October 1997, the National Institute on Educational Governance, Finance, Policymaking, and Management sponsored a TIMSS Policy Forum to explore the practical uses of TIMSS. These interviews with a few Forum participants illustrate how TIMSS may be used by state agencies, school districts, professional associations, and researchers.

We want to move toward a new educational paradigm in Missouri. Our vision is to replace classrooms where teachers talk and students passively listen with classrooms where teachers facilitate hands-on learning activities and students learn to think and apply their knowledge.

As we pursue this goal, we have used TIMSS to strengthen our state assessment program and to enhance our professional development efforts.

We administered the TIMSS test to about 12,000 students. The test results were used for a content validation of the eighth-grade mathematics test in our Missouri Assessment Plan. We also used the TIMSS test results to benchmark our curriculum. It helped us identify specific areas where we were doing well and others where we needed to improve. Also, we found the attitudinal data on teachers and students very helpful. For example, data on why students think they succeed offers insight about student motivation.

Professional development is a key reform strategy in Missouri. We have established nine regional professional development centers based in state colleges and universities where we train lead teachers in authentic instruction and assessment methods. The TIMSS materials, especially the videos, have been used successfully with teachers in our centers.

The First in the World Consortium was created 3 years ago and now includes 19 suburban Illinois school districts. Our Consortium is deeply committed to National Education Goal #5—becoming first in the world in mathematics and science. Because we saw the potential of benchmarking with TIMSS as an important means to our ambitious goal, we formed a partnership with the U.S. Department of Education which enabled us to participate in TIMSS as if we were a country. A total of 3,100 students were tested representing a student population of 37,000.^[1]

Now we are creating learning communities to study the TIMSS results and compare our achievement with other countries. The rich data about curriculum and teaching are generating ideas for improved practice in our districts. We have supported two summer institutes with 350 participants, including teachers, administrators, and school board members. This year, institute participants will develop curriculum products that exemplify new concepts of teaching and learning in math and science. Throughout the year, teachers across our districts are involved in learning networks which support collaboration around curriculum development based on our TIMSS data.

We have partnered with the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) for assistance in planning, documenting, and disseminating our activities. Further information about our consortium is available on the Internet (http://www.ncrel.org).

TIMSS is very important at AFT because it supports our longstanding emphasis on high standards. We see it as a valuable tool for benchmarking U.S. teaching practices, curriculum, and educational policy with the best in the world. We have developed an AFT "TIMSS Kit" to help our members understand what the findings say and what they don't say. We also have incorporated the data and the videotape into our "Thinking Mathematics" research synthesis and professional development for elementary and middle school teachers.

We have introduced thousands of teachers and union leaders to the TIMSS materials at various meetings, including the "Lessons from the World" TIMSS Conference that AFT co-sponsored with the National Center for Education Statistics in February 1997, the Summer and Winter Institutes of the Educational Research and Dissemination Program, and regional meetings for "Thinking Mathematics" teacher leaders. These members, in turn, disseminate the findings to many other groups.

Teachers find the TIMSS videotape study extremely useful as a focus for improving their mathematics and science lessons. They use it, for example, to examine the level of challenge in their questioning, the coherence of their lessons, and the focus and content of their curricula.

Videotape is a powerful tool for reflection and the TIMSS data are rich with information beyond the "horse race."

The TIMSS data offer exciting opportunities for educational researchers. I can see at least four important lines of inquiry these data can support: multivariate analyses of factors contributing to student achievement; cross--national research, especially in the areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment; studies of effective strategies for improving math and science education; and in-depth studies of teaching practice, an area where TIMSS exemplifies significant methodological advances.

At the University of Pennsylvania, we are already engaged in TIMSS-related research. With Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) and National Science Foundation (NSF) funding, we will be conducting a comprehensive multivariate analysis to address this question: Why did American 8th- and 12th-graders perform so poorly on TIMSS science and math tests, and why was there such a sharp deterioration of performance from the 4th- to 12th-grades? Also with OERI funding, CPRE is sponsoring three TIMSS Forums between February 1999 and June 2001 to help identify important issues for the next iteration of this international study and to facilitate dissemination of information from this round.

Publication Available For those who would like more information about our TIMSS Policy Forum, a free booklet summarizing the discussion is available. Call (877) 4ED-PUBS (877?433?7827) and ask for Policy Brief: What the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) Means for Systemic School Improvement. Also look for it on the Internet (http://www.ed.gov/pubs/edpubs.html).

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