IEA INSIDER 2024
Insights on IEA’s Novel LaNA: Expanding TIMSS and PIRLS Scales BY CLARA BEYER, OLIVER NEUSCHMIDT, LALE KHORRAMDEL, & MATTHIAS VON DAVIER IEA’s TIMSS and PIRLS are flagship assessments and recognized global standards for assessing science, mathematics, and reading achievement. Among many other facets, they are recommended indicators used by global development monitoring programs to measure progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), such as indicator 4.1. However, many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) need an internationally comparable assessment of mathematics and reading proficiency at a more attainable level. Furthermore, such an assessment should facilitate straightforward implementation and flexible administration timelines, while also providing additional individual capacity- building support. To better target this group of countries, the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center (ISC), in collaboration with IEA, developed a new Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (LaNA), a shorter, less demanding assessment based on TIMSS and PIRLS frameworks and items. LaNA targets primary school students and includes booklets assessing basic reading comprehension and mathematics skills. LaNA also collects context data through questionnaires to provide information about contexts of learning. After a development phase that included multiple pilot studies, a LaNA Consortium was formed to manage the administration of the novel LaNA instruments by conducting the LaNA Linking Study. The TIMSS & PIRLS ISC conducted the assessment development, assessment design, and statistical and psychometric analyses, while IEA Hamburg managed sampling, instrument preparation, survey operations, and data management. IEA Amsterdam and cApStAn managed the translation verification.
The LaNA Linking Study was launched in 2022 to establish a link between the LaNA results and the TIMSS and PIRLS reading and mathematics achievement scales. The data collection was a resounding success. Overcoming significant challenges, six countries—Burkina Faso, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine (West Bank), and Senegal— conducted both a practice administration and the main data collection phase successfully in 2023, submitting their data early this year. IEA has worked extensively with the countries to provide targeted support and capacity building in sampling, translation, instrument preparation, study administration, data entry, and data management. The assessment design, item blocks, and sample requirements were put together by the TIMSS & PIRLS ISC to establish the link between LaNA, TIMSS, and PIRLS. All countries administered an integrated design with newly developed LaNA booklets and linking booklets containing items from TIMSS and PIRLS. The data based on this linking design will be used to establish a link between LaNA and the TIMSS and PIRLS scales, finally establishing new Basic LaNA Benchmarks below the TIMSS and PIRLS Low International Benchmarks. Data on the proportions of students meeting the Basic Benchmarks, as well as the established TIMSS and PIRLS benchmarks in mathematics and reading, will enable LaNA results to provide direct measurements for indicator SDG 4.1.1b. The preliminary results are encouraging, demonstrating that LaNA is a well-aligned assessment for the student populations in fifth or sixth grades across participating countries. The results indicate that LaNA is an appropriate assessment for many LMICs not yet prepared to participate fully in TIMSS and PIRLS. The ongoing data analysis,
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