Use and Impact of TIMSS

The Russian Federation’s participation in IEA studies is considered an important benchmark in evaluating the quality of education in the country. Since 2005, the country’s participation in international studies has been stipulated in the Federal Program for Education Development adopted by the State Duma and financed through the federal budget.

In recent years, the use of TIMSS data has intensified. More and more specialists in multiple areas have started to use the data and initiated secondary analyses. Specifically, TIMSS data have been used for the following:

Informing audiences (e.g., policymakers, teachers, researchers, and students)
Explaining results and planning new studies (e.g., using secondary analyses of TIMSS data)
Developing new state educational standards for primary (2009) and basic (2011) education
Training specialists in educational measurement and data analysis at the federal and regional levels
Developing new master’s degree programs in educational measurement and evaluation, which include a course called International Comparative Studies in Evaluation of the Quality of Education, in which students work with TIMSS data sets and conduct data analyses