Modelling TIMSS data in an European comparative perspective: exploring influencing factors on achievement in mathematics grade 8

In international comparative studies like TIMSS data analysis is aimed at differences and similarities among education systems (countries). In this article the outcomes are presented of explorative path analysis on data collected with grade 8 students and classrooms in eight Western and two Central European education systems. For the 10 education systems the resulting general path model explains 19% or less of the variance in achievement in mathematics. In many systems home educational background and students’ attitude towards mathematics have a positive relation with achievement in mathematics, out-of-school activities a negative. Due to the psychometric quality of scales and non-availability of measures of important factors at classroom level (e.g., time on task and teacher’s expectation), no significant results were found of factors that can be manipulated by policy makers.