The wealth of information that TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey) provides includes achievement data for each participating country (Sturman et al, 2008; Martin et al, 2008; Mullis et al, 2008). This data includes the country’s mean score overall (on a scale with a mean set at 500) and the percentage of pupils in each age group (9-10 year olds and 13-14 year olds) reaching each of four ‘benchmarks’ in each subject (mathematics and science). Benchmarks are points on the attainment scale (set at scores of 400, 475, 550 and 625), and each is accompanied by a description of what students can understand and do at that point. The 59 countries participating in TIMSS 2007 included England, which has its own system of describing students’ levels of attainment: England’s national curriculum uses a system of ‘levels’ to describe what learners have achieved. For mathematics and science there are 8 levels, plus a ninth of ‘exceptional performance’. Teachers aim to help students progress through these levels as far as they can, from entry to school at age 5 through to when they take their school-leaving exams at age 16. At the end of each ‘key stage’ of their primary and lower-secondary schooling (ages 7, 11, and 13), students would be expected to attain levels 2, 4 and 5/6 respectively. Exploratory equating analysis was carried out on England’s TIMSS 2007 data, to compare its students’ performance against the TIMSS benchmarks and England’s national curriculum levels. Inferences were also made about the likely percentages of students in other high-scoring TIMSS countries who would achieve particular national curriculum levels, based on this analysis. The analysis included both TIMSS age groups and both subjects. - --continues in Methodology---

---At the time of TIMSS 2007, England’s students were assessed at ages 7, 11, and 13 by their teachers and also, in English, mathematics and science at ages 11 and 13, by externally set tests. The time of administering the TIMSS 2007 survey in England coincided with the eighth grade students (13-14 year olds) taking their end-of-key-stage 3 (KS3) tests, and so we were able to make direct comparisons between concurrent TIMSS and KS3 performance. The younger TIMSS students would take their KS2 tests in the subsequent year, and so we explored the relationship between their KS1 teacher assessments (at age 7) and their later TIMSS performance. Whilst England is already relatively data-rich in terms of the analysis of attainment, these national analyses enabled us to provide useful further value-added information, based on TIMSS outcomes. ---continues in Conclusions---

---This presentation will begin by describing the systems of TIMSS benchmarks and England’s national curriculum levels, taking account of differences between them, and the limitations of comparison as well as the information that can be gleaned. It will then go on to describe the outcomes of the analysis and extrapolate to predict likely percentages of students in other high-scoring TIMSS countries achieving particular national curriculum levels. The presentation will be pitched at a level requiring little or no technical expertise, but a statistician will be available should any of those attending wish to know more about the technical aspects of the analysis.