Why should my school and students participate? TIMSS informs national discussions about education
policy as well as international competitiveness.
By participating, students ensure fairness in the
questions that will be used in the main study in 2019.
Field-testing the assessment questions will identify
specific wording and content that could disadvantage
U.S. students in the main study. Their participation
helps ensure that students in schools like theirs are
represented in our evaluation of the transition to
eTIMSS. Students’ efforts in the field test help ensure
that the achievement of our nation’s grade 4 and 8
students can be accurately and fairly reported.
Will all our fourth- or eighth-grade students be asked to participate? It depends on the number of fourth- or eighth-grade
classrooms in the school. In schools with only one
or two such classrooms, all students will be asked
to participate. In schools with more than two such
classrooms, only students in two randomly selected
classrooms will be asked to participate. In addition,
some students with special needs or who are English
language learners may be excused from the assessment.
Who conducts the TIMSS assessment? The entire assessment process will be administered on
behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics
(NCES), within the U.S. Department of Education, by
trained staff from Westat, a research organization under
contract with NCES. NCES is authorized to conduct
this study under the Education Sciences Reform Act
of 2002 (ESRA 2002), 20 U.S. Code, §9543 and
6 U.S.C. §151, and approval of the U.S. Office of
Management and Budget under OMB # 1850-0695.
