TIMSS, PIRLS, NAEP

I keep discovering more abbreviations...
I wonder how these studies can benefit an average teacher...
May be if one chooses topics carefully test scores will go up?
NCREL, the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory has been developing an interactive Web site designed to assist school districts in their reform efforts of mathematics and science curricula.
Anyhow here are the links...
TIMSS, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, is designed to help countries all over the world improve student learning in mathematics and science.
TIMSS Research Questions
1. How do teachers in different countries teach?
2. How do their instructional practices differ?
How do these differences affect learning?
What can we learn from this?
3. What curriculum differences exist among the countries?
What is taught and when? What is not covered?
4. What are the different social and cultural contexts with which this learning takes place?
5. How do these affect learning?
6. What lessons can we learn?


PIRLS, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study is one of the largest international assessments of reading literacy
NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress Often called "The Nation's Report Card"
You can get results of NAEP studies here.
And here you can get TIMSS 2003 International Science Reports.
The TIMSS Assessment Frameworks and Specifications 2003 is the publication that describes in some detail the mathematics and science content to be assessed. The document also presents a framework describing the contextual factors associated with students’ learning in mathematics and science.