How do international assessments deal with the fact that education systems around the world are so different?
• The fact that education systems are different across countries is one of the main reasons we are interested in making cross-country comparisons. However, these differences make it essential to carefully define the target populations to be compared, so that comparisons are as fair and valid as possible. Depending in large part on when students first start school, students at a given age may have less or more schooling in different countries, and, students in a given grade may be of different ages in different countries. In every case, detailed information on the comparability of the sampled populations is published for review and consideration. For PIRLS, the target population represents students in the grade that corresponds to 4 years of formal schooling, counting from the first year of schooling as defined by the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), Level 1. This corresponds to fourth grade in most countries, including the United States. This population repre
Related Questions
- How do international assessments deal with the fact that educational systems are so different—for example, students start school at different ages, are tracked or streamed differently, etc?
- How do contemporary education issues impact students, teachers, and schools in different countries around the world?
- How are world language and international education handled at different grade levels?
