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Explore Assessments and Surveys

The International Activities Program coordinates U.S. participation in several international studies of education, including performance assessments of students and assessments of adult literacy. The studies also include surveys to collect contextual data from respondents, teachers, and schools as well as descriptive information about each country’s education system. The table below summarizes the international studies in which the United States has participated since 1995.

Click on the table headers below to reduce the information presented.

TIMSS assessed the final year of secondary school (Grade 12 in the United States) in 1995; TIMSS assessed only grade 8 in 1999.

PISA also assessed problem solving in 2003 and will assess problem solving in 2012.


More About International Assessments

See a detailed comparison of the international studies that the United States participates in currently.

Find out which countries participate in the current international assessments.

Learn how the United States compares with other countries that participated in the most recent international assessments.

Learn how the international assessments compare with each other and with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). NCES has prepared a series of papers comparing TIMSS, PISA, PIRLS and NAEP in terms of assessment purpose, content, target population, and results.