International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA)
Logo
Secretariat	Amsterdam, Netherlands
Leaders
• IEA Chair	Ms Anne-Berit Kavli
• Executive Director	Dr Dirk Hastedt
• Director of IEA Amsterdam	Dr Andrea Netten
• Director of IEA Hamburg	Mr Heiko Sibbens
Establishment	1967
Website www.iea.nl

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) is an independent, international cooperative of national research institutions and governmental research agencies. It conducts large-scale comparative studies of educational achievement and other aspects of education, with the aim of gaining in-depth understanding of the effects of policies and practices within and across systems of education.

Since its founding in 1958, IEA has conducted more than 30 research studies of cross-national achievement. IEA studies focus on subjects relating to mathematics, science, reading, civic and citizenship education, computer and information literacy, and teacher education, among others.

Even though the IEA became a legal entity in 1967, its origins date back to 1958 when a group of scholars, educational psychologists, sociologists, and psychometricians met at the UNESCO Institute for Education in Hamburg, Germany, to discuss problems of school and student evaluation. They believed that effective evaluation requires examination of both educational inputs as well as its outcomes (such as knowledge, attitudes, and participation). The founders assumed that if research could obtain evidence from across a wide range of systems, the variability would be sufficient to reveal important relationships within different school systems. They strongly rejected data-free assertions about the relative merits of various education systems, and aimed to identify factors that would have meaningful and consistent influences on educational outcomes.

The IEA Secretariat and Data Processing and Research Center, together with the association's membership, carry out comparative research studies in education and aims to:

The IEA Secretariat

The IEA secretariat is located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It carries out a wide range of duties related to IEA memberships, studies, and finance. These responsibilities include:

Secretariat staff also disseminate study reports and information about the work of the association to the IEA members and the public.

The IEA DPC

The IEA Data Processing and Research Center (DPC) is the data processing and research department of IEA, located in Hamburg, Germany.

The center carries out activities in several major areas including:

The center also provides support services in data analysis and reporting for IEA member states, and conducts regular training activities. Another area of work is in scanner-assisted data collection, electronic scoring, and data interpretation.

Since its founding in 1958, IEA has conducted more than 30 research studies of cross-national achievement. IEA studies focus on subjects of particular interest to IEA members. These include mathematics and science studies, reading studies, civic and citizenship education, computer and information literacy, and teacher education, among others. A regular cycle of studies in basic school subjects includes: