Evidence-based decision making or a tunnel vision effect? TIMSS, problem definition and policy change in Israeli mathematics education

This study examines the influence of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999 results on mathematics education policy in Israel. Analyzing various documents, the study shows how these results transformed policymakers' discourse regarding mathematics education. In o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Critical studies in education 2020-05, Vol.61 (3), p.363-379
Main Author: Feniger, Yariv
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Achievement Gap
Achievement Tests
Alignment (Education)
Arabs
Assessment
comparative and international education
Curricula
Decision Making
Education policy
Educational evaluation
Educational Indicators
Educational Policy
Equal Education
Evidence Based Practice
Foreign Countries
Global Approach
globalisation and internationalisation
International Assessment
Jews
mathematics
Mathematics Achievement
Mathematics education
Mathematics Tests
Middle School Mathematics
Middle School Students
Policy Formation
Standardized Tests
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Summary:This study examines the influence of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999 results on mathematics education policy in Israel. Analyzing various documents, the study shows how these results transformed policymakers' discourse regarding mathematics education. In order to achieve improvement in Israel's ranking, the middle school mathematics curriculum was aligned with the TIMSS test. Following this change, the scores of Israeli students rose considerably in TIMSS 2011. Parallel results from Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Israeli internal standardized tests, however, do not show comparable improvement in mathematics achievement. High school matriculation data for the same period of time show a decline in the percentage of students who took the most advanced mathematics courses. Furthermore, none of these data sources show any noticeable reduction in social inequality in mathematics achievement. On the basis of theoretical insights from political science, it is argued that international tests influence the way educational problems are framed and defined. Thus, instead of enriching educational decision-making processes, these tests can create a tunnel vision effect that restricts policymakers' attention to 'problems' and 'solutions' defined by the tests themselves.
ISSN:1750-8487
1750-8495
DOI:10.1080/17508487.2018.1448877