ABSTRACT
Since the end of the 1950s numerous studies have sought to compare the attainments of pupils in various countries in subject areas such as mathematics, reading and science. The IEA has played a major role in conducting the majority of these international assessments. In the words of the founder of IEA, it is a matter of ‘treating the world as a laboratory’ in order to better understand the operation of education systems, to identify problems that are not very apparent at the national level, and to find high-performing educational approaches. Recently the OECD has also developed such a study in order to assess more closely the effectiveness of systems in relation to the resources (input) and pupil outcomes (output).
