International Large-Scale Studies of Educational Achievement - The Involvement of the Czech Republic

Since 1989, the Czech educational community has had very limited experience with education measurement. Comparative data on education outcomes were not available at either the national or the international level. In the 1990s, the situation changed dramatically. The Czech Republic joined international organizations specializing in comparative studies & several international enterprises in the field of education measurement. Consequently, there appeared also the first attempts to address the issue nationally. In this article, the author gives an overview of the international large-scale surveys on educational achievement that have taken place in the Czech Republic since 1990 & summarizes their main findings. At the end of the article, the author provides brief information about the national initiatives in this field. Within a short time period, the surveys produced extremely rich data sources of very good quality. The aim of the article is to inform the scientific community about these sources, to raise interest among its members in using them in their own research, & thus to contribute to their further exploitation