The Trends in International Mathematics and Science (TIMSS) test, an international assessment that measures student learning in mathematics and science, was taken by a number of senior students here at Eleanor Roosevelt High School two weeks ago.

“My understanding is that this test is assessing the skills of students who took advance science and math courses and how U.S. students do compared to students in the rest of the world,”  said the testing coordinator, Mr. Andrew Zanghi.

At ERHS, seniors who took advanced physics or mathematics courses both junior and senior years were qualified to take the exam and were selected randomly.

“They have a list of schools that offer these [advanced science and math courses] to a large number of students and those school were randomly selected, some 500 nationwide,” Mr. Zanghi said while explaining the process. “It seems like they stratify the schools. They want a school in an urban area, rural area, suburban area, schools with a large minority population,” he said.  There were two different test that were given, a math test and a science test. “No student took both, even though they might have qualified to take both,” Mr. Zanghi said.

Another senior, Catherine Master, discussed her preparations saying that she “did not get enough time to prepare since [she] was informed at the last minute.”  The exam “was easy,” said Master, but she “felt angry” for being chosen to take the exam, since she “didn’t want to, was told randomly, and was told at the last minute.”

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) publishes the data on student performance in math and science every four years.

“A lot of testing is going on. It came at a poor time,” Mr. Zanghi said. “There is a lot of frustration because of the timing. I hope that the students took it seriously and did well,” he added.