Lessons Learned: What International Assessments Tell Us About Math Achievement

Description

Standards for education achievement are under scrutiny throughout the industrial world, and in this technological age, student performance in mathematics is deemed particularly important. For over four decades, international assessments conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement have measured how well students are learning math in various countries. But beyond the basic "horse race" appeal of such tests, what have we learned from this wealth of collected data? The authors, all experts on international assessments, dig beneath the national scores to investigate pressing issues of practice and policy. What overarching lessons have we learned from forty years of testing? How have popular reforms influenced learning? How do U.S. math curricula compare with those used overseas? And does school size really affect learning? By evaluating these questions and others, Lessons Learned moves beyond the competition for international ranking to find strategies, both in and outside the classroom, to improve student achievement in mathematics. Contributors: Jan-Eric Gustafsson (University of Gothenburg), Laura S. Hamilton (RAND Corporation), Richard T. Houang (Michigan State University), Dougal Hutchison (National Foundation for Educational Research), Jeremy Kilpatrick (University of Georgia), Michael O. Martin (Boston College), Jos?© Felipe Mart?­nez (University of California-Los Angeles), Vilma Mesa (University of Michigan), Ina V. S. Mullis (Boston College), Elena C. Papanastasiou (Intercollege, Cyprus), Efi Paparistodemou (Ministry of Education, Cyprus), William H. Schmidt (Michigan State University), Ian Schagen (National Foundation for Educational Research), Gabriela Sch??tz (Ifo Institute for Economic Research), Finbarr Sloane (Arizona State University)