ABSTRACT
The setting of educational standards of achievement, the routes by which those standards are obtained and their relative comparabilities are research issues of national and international concern. The notion of an international educational standard and the gathering of evidence that would be required to substantiate this is an intriguing one. At present any evidence, if so it can be called, is derived from surveys by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement such as the first and second international mathematics and science studies (FIMS and SIMS). A Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is currently ongoing.
