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Trends in international mathematics and science study (TIMSS) assessment for grade 8 mathematics (2003)

Source: R/timss03.R
timss03.Rd

This is data from the United States sample of the 2003 TIMSS assessment for grade 8 mathematics. This data contains responses to 23 items from 757 respondents. This data has been used by Skaggs et al. (2016) and Su et al. (2013) to evaluate the appropriateness of using diagnostic models for modeling the TIMSS assessment data. The data set was uploaded to the Item Response Warehouse (Domingue et al., 2025) and is reformatted here.

Usage

timss03_data

timss03_qmatrix

Format

timss03_data is a tibble containing TIMSS response data with 757 rows and 24 variables.

  • id: Respondent identifier.

  • M012001-M022234B: Dichotomous item responses to the 23 TIMSS items.

timss03_qmatrix is a tibble that identifies which skills are measured by each TIMSS 2003 item. This data set contains a subset of data consisting of 23 items measuring 13 skills. The timss03_qmatrix correspondingly is made up of 23 rows and 14 variables.

  • item: Item identifier, corresponds to item response columns in timss03_data.

  • Attribute columns: 13 columns, one for each attribute. Each is a dichotomous indicator for whether or not the skill is measured by each item. A value of 1 indicates the skill is measured by the item and a value of 0 indicates the skill is not measured by the item.

Details

The skills correspond to knowledge of:

  • understand_ratio: Understand concepts of a ratio and a unit rate.

  • use_ratio: Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve problems.

  • compute_fluently: Compute fluently with multi-digit numbers.

  • rational_numbers: Apply and extend understandings of numbers to the system of rational numbers.

  • algebraic_expressions: Apply and extend understandings of arithmetic to algebraic expressions.

  • one_variable_equations: Solve one-variable equations and inequalities.

  • recognize_proportional_relationships: Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities.

  • use_proportional_relationships: Use proportional relationships to solve multi-step ratio and percent problems.

  • asmd_rational_numbers: Add, subtract, multiply, and divide rational numbers.

  • expressions_equations: Solve problems using numerical and algebraic expressions and equations.

  • compare_fractions: Compare two fractions with different numerators and denominators.

  • multistep_problems: Solve multi-step problems with whole numbers using the four operations.

  • equivalent_fractions: Use equivalent fraction as a strategy to add and subtract fractions.

For more details, see Table 2 of Su et al. (2013).

References

Domingue, B., Braginsky, M., Caffrey-Maffei, L., Gilbert, J. B., Kanopka, K., Kapoor, R., Lee, H., Liu, Y., Nadela, S., Pan, G., Zhang, L., Zhang, S., & Frank, M. C. (2025). An introduction to the Item Response Warehouse (IRW): A resource for enhancing data usage in psychometrics. Behavior Research Methods, 57, Article 276. doi:10.3758/s13428-025-02796-y

Skaggs, G., Wilkins, J. L. M., & Hein, S. F. (2016). Grain size and parameter recovery with TIMSS and the general diagnostic model. International Journal of Testing, 16(4), 310-330. doi:10.1080/15305058.2016.1145683

Su, Y.-L., Choi, K. M., Lee, W.-C., Choi, T., & McAninch, M. (2013). Hierarchical cognitive diagnostic analysis for TIMSS 2003 mathematics (Research Report No. 35). University of Iowa, Center for Advanced Studies in Measurement and Assessment. https://education.uiowa.edu/sites/education.uiowa.edu/files/2022-10/casma-research-report-35.pdf