Chapter 13: The TIMSS 2007 International Benchmarks of ...

Chapter 13
The TIMSS 2007 International
Benchmarks of Student Achievement
in Mathematics and Science
Ina V.S. Mullis, Ebru Erberber, and Corinna Preuschoff
13.1 Overview
it is important for users of the ti MSS achievement results to understand what
the scores on the ti MSS mathematics and science achievement scales mean.
t hat is, what does it mean to have a scale score of 513 or 426? t o describe
student performance at various points along the ti MSS mathematics and
science achievement scales, ti MSS 2007 used scale anchoring to summarize
and describe student achievement at four points on the mathematics and
science scales—a dvanced international Benchmark (625), h igh international
Benchmark (550), intermediate international Benchmark (475), and Low
international Benchmark (400). f or the description of performance at the
international benchmarks please see TIMSS 2007 International Mathematics
Report (Mullis, Martin, & f oy, 2008) and TIMSS 2007 International Science
Report (Martin, Mullis, & f oy, 2008).
t his chapter describes the scale anchoring procedures that were applied
to describe student performance at these benchmarks. information about
the ti MSS 2007 achievement scales and details about the methods used
for scaling were presented in c hapter 11. in brief, scale anchoring involves
selecting benchmarks (scale points) on the ti MSS achievement scales to
be described in terms of student performance and then identifying items
that students ...