The TIMSS Resource Kit is composed of four modules designed to make the results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study publicly accessible. Modules focus on U.S. Education, Student Achievement, Teaching, and Curricula. The kit contains numerous resources, including:

• a 74-page Introduction to TIMSS;
• two videotapes with discussion guides (one of which is an 80-minute videotape of eighth grade mathematics lessons in the U.S., Japan, and Germany);
• the official reports by the National Center for Education Statistics describing 4th grade and 8th grade achievement and schooling;
• the international mathematics and science achievement reports with guide;
• two mathematics teaching booklets: Mathematics Program in Japan, and Fostering Algebraic and Geometric Thinking;
• a guidebook for examining school curricula; and
• a CD Rom on tools for discussion.

The Introduction to TIMSS provides a general purpose and audience for the entire resource kit:

...to provide educators, parents, business leaders, government officials, and community leaders with information and tools they can use to help students, teachers, and school officials examine their own performance in an international perspective. It brings the main findings of the TIMSS study directly to the states, districts, schools and classrooms. Through this information, local teaching, achievement, and curricula can be compared to those of other countries...Such a comparison helps us understand our own practices better and also suggests possible alternatives. The goal of this Resource Kit is not to prescribe practices to be adopted, but rather to provide insights from TIMSS to make our own unique processes of education more effective (p. 1).

The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) was conducted in 1995 by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), an independent international cooperative of research centers and departments of education from more than 50 countries.

Data were collected using five approaches: "assessments, questionnaires, curriculum analyses, videotapes of classroom instruction, and case studies of policy topics. Each of these five approaches used in TIMSS represents an important advancement in its field. Taken together, they create an unprecedented opportunity to understand U.S. mathematics and science education from a new and richer perspective" (Introduction to TIMSS, p.7).

TIMSS, consisting of data from a half-million students in 41 nations at multiple grade levels and tested in 30 languages, offers an unparalleled opportunity to understand the educational context in which teaching and learning take place on an international scale. The TIMSS Resource Kit was produced as a means of disseminating the information gained from the study to a broad community of educational decision-makers.

To meet its goal of providing insights, four modules, representing four perspectives on the TIMSS, were developed: U. S. Education, Student Achievement, Teaching, and Curricula. Achieving maximum benefit from such a substantive study requires not only that its results be disseminated widely, but that the dissemination materials be of high quality for a diverse population of readers to easily understand and use.

The Resource Kit achieves the requisite high quality in a variety of ways:

• different perspectives, including curricula, teaching, and assessment;
• multiple presentation formats including print materials, videotape, and handout/transparency masters;
• ability to reproduce all parts;
• clarity and readability;
• accurate data interpretation;
• reports written on multiple technical levels;
• comparisons to the two prior international studies, as well as across countries and through grade levels.

More specifically, each module contains unique qualities of its own that deserve elaboration.

U.S. Education
This module contains the Introduction to TIMSS (included with each module if purchased separately) and reports of the TIMSS study at the fourth and eighth grade levels, with the focus on U. S. education. One reviewer noted that these reports were "sound from statistical, assessment, and comparative perspectives... comprehensive, covering achievement, curriculum, and teaching... presented in an understandable, accessible, and coherent manner without assuming the user possesses prior knowledge or technical research skills." An accompanying videotape and discussion guide highlight the eighth grade findings.

Student Achievement
Two large books reporting student science and mathematics achievement-as well as achievement-related factors such as student attitude, home environment, and instructional contexts and practices-dominate this module. The breadth and depth of information presented, both in table and narrative forms, is impressive. Also included in this module is a guide to the international eighth-grade reports, with sample test items.

Teaching
The Teaching Module is highlighted by the comparative mathematics videotape and its accompanying Moderator's Guide to Eighth-Grade Mathematics Lessons. This Moderator's Guide contains nearly 200 pages that cover preparation for discussion sessions, discussion guides on each of the videotaped lessons, research methods and findings, background on education in each of the three countries, answers to frequently asked questions, handout/transparency masters, the lessons, and lesson transcripts. In addition to the videotape and Moderator's Guide, the module contains an unique, English version of Mathematics Program in Japan and the very practical Fostering Algebraic and Geometric Thinking: Selections from the NCTM Standards. The reflective selection (and development) of items for this module is representative of the high quality of the Resource Kit as a whole.

Curricula
The Guidebook to Examine School Curricula provides a thorough examination of international mathematics and science curricula. Curricula were analyzed using five different methods and the results are discussed in light of U. S. curricula in an executive summary. One reviewer noted the importance of providing specific and extended training to any educators who will use the described methods of curriculum analysis.

Reviewers noted that the quality and content of the entire Resource Kit is sufficiently rigorous for a variety of audiences and contains high quality, useful materials. Equity issues were considered throughout the study and are included in the presentation in the TIMSS Resource Kit materials.

The variation in format and content of the four modules affords multiple professional development opportunities. Individuals or groups could read and reflect on the Introduction to TIMSS, the data reports, the excerpts from the NCTM Standards, the description of the Japanese Mathematics Program, and/or the Executive Summary of A Splintered Vision: An Investigation of U.S. Science and Mathematics Education (included in the Guidebook to Examine School Curricula).

Another professional development opportunity would be to convene groups for facilitated discussion of a reading or multiple readings. The Teaching Module and The U.S. Education Module contain videotapes and companion presentation guides delineating suggestions for use with multiple audiences. These modules are more explicitly developed for facilitated professional development in groups than are the Curricula and Student Achievement Modules. Adaptation of these materials for study groups or task forces would be most appropriate.

In considering uses for professional development, it is important to remember that the TIMSS Resource Kit was intended not only for educators, but also for parents, business leaders, government officials, and community leaders. The hope of its creators is to elicit widespread improvement in the U. S. system of education.

The TIMSS reports can be downloaded from the Internet and all items are reproducible.