Czech School Inspectorate hosted the TIMSS 2015 Sixth National Research Coordinators Meeting

The meeting took place in Prague on 9 – 13 March 2015, all together with 140 participants from 45 countries that are involved in the TIMSS 2015 survey. The meeting was co-organized by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) based in Boston, USA.

The week´s-lasting workshop was introduced by Ondřej Andrys, Deputy Chief School Inspector and by Jindřich Fryč, Director General of Section for International Relations and EU Affairs at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. The results of international pupils´ comparison are considered to be very important information for education policy makers, academic sphere or other professionals in education, but also for pupils, schools and broader public. The Czech School Inspectorate uses the outcomes from international survey for further secondary analysis which is unique additional information related to evaluation of conditions, course and outcomes of education in individual schools and school facilities. The outcomes from the international survey are also a relevant contribution to the analysis of education system as a whole.

The aim of the seminar was to introduce the national coordinators to the process of result verification and evaluation of the tests (scoring) and at the same time recommendations were offered how to work with the collected data. The need of united approach for evaluating the pupils´ answers is illustrated by the fact that tests are translated into 44 different languages.

In the Czech Republic the TIMSS 2015 survey data collection will take place from the 4th of May until the 29th of May in 160 basic schools and will address pupils in the 4th grade. The international report based on the TIMSS 2015 survey outcomes will be published in November 2016, each member state will subsequently publish individual national report. The aim of the international survey TIMSS is to map the conditions, course and outcomes of education in math and science in the 4th grades of basic schools.