IEA Education

💡 IEA studies gather a huge wealth of data on both student achievement and contexts for student learning. There is much to explore in these data beyond what can be highlighted in international reports at the time the results are first released.

🔎 The Insights Reports series from the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center at Bsoton College makes use of these achievement and contextual data to take a closer look at particular areas of research interest. For example, published just this month, the latest TIMSS 2023 Insights report examines how closely mathematics and science curricula are aligned with what students are actually taught across participating education systems.

🔗Interested? Read the most recent TIMSS Insights report here: https://www.iea.nl/publications/study-reports/international-reports-iea-studies/timss-insights-mathematics-science-curricula

☀️ This week, we’re on the beautiful island of Corfu for the 3rd ICILS NRC Meeting!

Countries have been busy reviewing and providing feedback on the newly developed CIL and CT modules, and today discussions continue with a closer look at the latest updates to the context questionnaires.

Many thanks to all participating countries for their valuable help to finalise the field trial instruments. 🌍

✍️ That’s a wrap on the selection for IEA and European Commission first Research & Policy Grant for Early Career Researchers!

🎓 Thank you to all the applicants who submitted proposals. We received fascinating applications from all over the world, with innovative uses of data from TIMSS, PIRLS, ICCS and ICILS to inform education policy. The selected applicants will be hearing from us soon!

➡️ If your project was not selected, we encourage you to apply again in 2027. Be sure to follow us to get updates on next year’s grant!

📢 Interested in working with international large-scale assessment data? The IERI Autumn Academy offers hands-on training for researchers and analysts looking to strengthen their skills using newly released datasets.

🍁 This autumn, join a three-day workshop focused on secondary data analysis with the latest databases from , , , , and .

🎓 Space is limited, secure your spot now! ➡️ https://meetinghand.com/e/ieri-autumn-academy-2026/

📣 The just released TIMSS 2023 Insights report explores how closely mathematics and science curricula align with what students are actually taught across education systems. 📘

By examining the intended, implemented, and attained curriculum, TIMSS provides unique insights into how curriculum expectations translate into classroom practice and student outcomes. Access to the full report via the IEA website here: https://www.iea.nl/news-events/news/timss-insights-alignment-intended-implemented-curricula

🧭 While girls have historically lagged behind boys in mathematics achievement, many countries had seen this gap narrow. However, since 2019, TIMSS data suggests the gender gap has started widening again.

Using TIMSS data from 1995–2023 at both fourth and eighth grade, IEA’s newest Compass Brief, authored in partnership with UNESCO, explores how gender gaps in mathematics achievement have evolved over time➡️ https://iea.nl/publications/series-journals/iea-compass-briefs-education-series/april-2026-girls-losing-ground

✨ Applications for the 2026 IEA Research Awards are now closed, and we would like to take a moment to thank everyone who applied!

The Choppin Award honors exceptional master’s theses and doctoral dissertations that use empirical methods and draw on IEA data. The Wolf Award celebrates authors of peer-reviewed articles, monographs, or books featuring analyses from one or more IEA studies.

Curious about the inspiring work of past awardees? Read about the 2025 winners in this Insider article➡️

IEA Insider 2025 This interactive flipbook is created with FlippingBook, a service for streaming PDFs online. No download, no waiting. Open and start reading right away!

➡️ Today, we’re highlighting one of the newest publications in the IEA Research for Education series: "Dinaric Perspectives on PIRLS 2021".

This is the second volume in the series that has zoned in on the Dinaric region, and it analyzes PIRLS data to highlight the achievements, challenges, and contextual factors that shape reading outcomes across Albania, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia.

It's a wonderful example of the collaborative nature of the international education research community, and is the culmination of work by National Research Coordinators, IEA experts, regional scholars, and colleagues across Europe with extensive experience in analyzing IEA data.

🗝️ It can be accessed and downloaded open-access here: https://iea.nl/publications/series-journals/iea-research-education/dinaric-perspectives-pirls-2021

💫 Are you an experienced and highly organized Executive Assistant? Are you interested in working for an international organization involved in education research?

📣IEA Amsterdam is hiring! Our new Executive Assistant will work closely with IEA’s Executive Director and the Directors of IEA Amsterdam, and will collaborate with the wider IEA Amsterdam team.

🗓️ Check out all the details and apply before 24 May:https://www.iea.nl/sites/default/files/2026-05/IEA%20Executive%20Assistant_Vacancy_May%202026.pdf