International comparative assessments on student achievement provide a large body of data spanning over about five decades. The international large-scale assessments are constructed to assess country-level change. On the other hand, a coherent and international understanding of the trends in educational outcomes are strongly needed and suggested by numerous previous research (e.g. Blömeke, Olsen, & Suhl, 2016), and investigating these trends requires long-term analysis. Strietholt and Rosén (2016) demonstrate how to link the achievement tests from recent and older studies conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) on reading literacy onto the same measurement scale. However, there are no previous attempts to link the background questionnaire items measuring non-cognitive constructs (e.g. attitude) over time. Previous research indicates that constructing an attitude scale might be difficult, as these scales are highly context-dependent (Keeves & Morgenstern, 1991). The purpose of the present study is to investigate the possibilities for the long-term scaling of cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes in international large-scale assessments in mathematics and investigating within-country trends in the relationship between non-cognitive outcomes and achievement. The present study, which is part of a larger project with the aim of studying long-term trends, uses data from Hungary, Sweden, and United States, as these countries are among those participating most frequently in the assessment cycles on mathematics. The analysis includes the construction of an inventory of items measuring grade 8 achievement and attitude in the IEA studies on mathematics. The second part of the study attempts to compare different classical and modern approaches and create scales across time, in order to link eight studies from 1964 until the present. The document analysis indicates that there are possibilities for linking these studies in both types of outcomes, as there are a number of overlapping items. As there are no previous attempts to link items measuring attitude over time, this section of the study is by necessity highly explorative. The initial evaluation of the relationship between non-cognitive outcomes and achievement using anchor items shows a similar pattern in the countries. Among the attitude items, those tapping students’ self-confidence, appear to have the strongest and most stable positive relationship with mathematical achievement over time.

Blömeke, S., Olsen, R. V., & Suhl, U. (2016). Relation of Student Achievement to the Quality of Their Teachers and Instructional Quality. In T. Nilsen, & J. Gustafsson (Eds.) Teacher Quality, Instructional Quality and Student Outcomes. Relationships Across Cohorts, Countries and Time. (Vol. 2). DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-41252-8 Keeves, J. P., & Morgenstern, C. (1991). Attitudes towards Science: Measures and Effects. In J., P., Keeves, (Ed.), The IEA study of science. 3, Changes in science education and achievement: 1970 to 1984 (pp. 122-140). Oxford; New York: Pergamon Press. Strietholt, R., & Rosén, M. (2016). Linking Large-Scale Reading Assessments: Measuring International Trends Over 40 Years. Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives, 14(1), 1–26. DOI: 10.1080/15366367.2015.1112711