Content Coverage:Development Over Time and Correlation with Achievement

Alignment between educational goals (intended and implemented curricula) and educational outcomes (attained curriculum) is an essential characteristic of effective teacher practice. IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) distinguishes between the intended curriculum prescribed at the system level, the implemented curriculum at the classroom level, and the attained curriculum as students’ learning outcomes. This chapter first comments on the agreement between the TIMSS assessment and the curriculum in participating countries based on the Test-Curriculum Matching Analysis (TCMA). It finds that the TIMSS measure of student ability to be in accordance with a measure based on national curricula. This is followed by an overview of changes in the respective curricula. Next, the chapter analyzes the intended curriculum across cycles as reported by National Research Coordinators in the curriculum questionnaire, finding variations across cycles. The implemented curriculum as measured in the teacher questionnaire and its relation to student scores is also discussed. The finding shows variations between years and cycles that are only partially explained by curriculum revisions. The chapter concludes that there are inconsistencies in how curricular content is conceptualized across different types of measures. Furthermore, the way these measures are reported introduces uncertainty as they are based, to some degree, on expert opinion or ambiguous survey questions.