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Principals (policy makers) have debated the progress in U.S. student performance for a half century or more. Informing these conversations, survey agents have administered seven million psychometrically linked tests in math and reading in 160 waves to national probability samples of selected cohorts born between 1954 and 2007. This study is the first to assess consistency of results by agency. We find results vary by agent, but consistent with Flynn effects, gains are larger in math than reading, except for the most recent period. Non-whites progress at a faster pace. Socio-economically disadvantaged white, black, and Hispanic students make greater progress when tested in elementary school, but that advantage attenuates and reverses itself as students age. We discuss potential moderators.

Educational inequality due to family socioeconomic status (SES) has been the focus of both public dialogue and education research in the United States for many years. The current study aims to understand how educational inequality due to family SES has changed in the United States. Specifically, the study focuses on the changes in achievement gaps between high and low SES students between 2003 and 2017 and the changes in the performance of low-SES students over time. Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) grade 8 mathematics assessment were used for the analyses. Results show that the SES achievement gap at the national level has remained the same over time. State-level results suggest that 34 of the 50 states' SES achievement gaps experienced no significant change between 2003 and 2017, 14 gaps widened, and only two SES gaps narrowed. In addition, at the national level, more low-SES students achieved at the NAEP Basic and at the NAEP Proficient levels over time with a majority of states improving their low-SES students' performance. In conclusion, the study contributes to the existing literature not only by reflecting on U.S. national trends using an effective SES index, but also by providing state-level results. It also collects trend data on states' macro-level indicators, including economic growth, social inequality, and educational expenditures, allowing state-specific findings to be presented in the context of changes in macro-level context. Initial explorations of relationships between state SES achievement gap trends and macroeconomic factors are presented to motivate future research. The trends in SES achievement gaps and the specific policy contexts are presented in greater detail for 13 states/jurisdictions.

Research has shown that there is a gap in educational achievement between socioeconomic and racial groups in the public education system in the United States. This paper identifies the link between resources and academic achievement. Through examining educational resources, from in-school factors, such as facilities and teacher quality, to out-of-school factors, such as family structure, socioeconomic status, and community values, this study serves to evaluate several theories of social capital in the hopes of providing an explanation for why this achievement gap exists. The review of the literature provided an inconsistent view on which factor has the most impact on educational achievement across diverse groups. In turn, this paper explores the possibility that the factors are interrelated and therefore difficult to compare. By outlining an analogy between Jared Diamond's (1999) geographic luck theory from "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and the public education system in the United States, this paper shows the importance of resources to academic achievement and how social capital plays a consequential role in students' performance in school.

The purpose of this report is to summarize the key elements of school and district level Performance Index scores (PI scores) for the 50 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.) across the United States. PI scores are partial or overall summative ratings of schools or districts currently used across US state accountability systems to assess organizational performance. In this study, we first extracted 14 elements from 49 PI calculation metrics for states in the U.S and conducted a descriptive analysis to provide an overview of which data elements are used across the different calculation metrics for each state and what role PI scores play in state accountability systems. Second, we categorized the fourteen elements into seven categories proposed by the most recent ESSA regulations (81 FR 34539 §200.14-16, 2016) and examined how each state integrated each element in their PI score calculations. Third, we conducted a multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis to compare the similarities and differences of PI calculation metrics across the states. The results indicate that there are few commonalities in PI score calculation metrics across the states, as each state has its own methods in addressing the requirements of NCLB and now ESSA. The goal of this report is to inform decisions across states on PI score calculations through summarizing overall ratings and metrics nationally used to hold schools and districts accountable as states move toward implementing the recent Every Child Succeeds Act (ESSA) regulations.

Differences in teacher quality are commonly cited as a key determinant of the huge international student performance gaps. However, convincing evidence on this relationship is still lacking, in part because it is unclear how to measure teacher quality consistently across countries. We use unique international assessment data to investigate the role of teacher cognitive skills as one main dimension of teacher quality in explaining student outcomes. Our main identification strategy exploits exogenous variation in teacher cognitive skills attributable to international differences in relative wages of nonteacher public sector employees. Using student-level test score data, we find that teacher cognitive skills are an important determinant of international differences in student performance. Results are supported by fixed-effects estimation that uses within-country between-subject variation in teacher skills.

The debate about the performance of US students on international assessments of educational achievement routinely fails to account for one consistently stark result: US achievement is bifurcated between a group of high-performing Asian and white students and an exceptionally low-performing group of black and Hispanic students. By summarizing results across 20 major international tests conducted since 1995, this research paper shows that when US racial and ethnic groups are separately compared with other countries, Asian and white students regularly perform at or near the top of international rankings, while black and Hispanic students typically rank at or near the bottom. Furthermore, the United States has a substantially larger minority population than all other developed countries, and minority status is not synonymous with internationally comparable factors such as socioeconomic level or immigrant status. The fact that overall US scores are disproportionately influenced by race and ethnicity suggests that researchers and reformers must reconsider how they use and interpret the results of international achievement tests. The research paper recommends providing and analyzing cross-national data separately by ethnic groups to inform approaches to improving education for all students. (Contains 1 figure, 3 tables, and 8 footnotes.)

Most analyses of teacher quality end without any assessment of the economic value of altered teacher quality. This paper combines information about teacher effectiveness with the economic impact of higher achievement. It begins with an overview of what is known about the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement, which provides the basis for consideration of the derived demand for teachers which comes from their impact on economic outcomes. Alternative valuation methods are based on the impact of increased achievement on individual earnings and on the impact of low teacher effectiveness on economic growth through aggregate achievement. A teacher one standard deviation above the mean effectiveness annually generates marginal gains of over $400,000 in present value of student future earnings with a class size of 20 and proportionately higher with larger class sizes. Alternatively, replacing the bottom 5-8 percent of teachers with average teachers could move the U.S. near the top of international math and science rankings with a present value of $100 trillion. (Contains 3 tables, 3 figures and 44 footnotes.)

A growing number of American states and school districts require students to meet basic performance standards in core academic subjects at key transition points in order to be promoted to the next grade. We exploit a discontinuity in the probability of third grade retention under a Florida test-based promotion policy to study the causal effect of retention on student outcomes over time. Regression discontinuity estimates indicate large short-term gains in achievement among retained students and a sharp reduction in the probability of retention in subsequent years. The achievement gains from retention fade out gradually over time, however, and are statistically insignificant after six years. Despite this fade out, our results suggest that previous evidence that early retention leads to adverse academic outcomes is misleading due to unobserved differences between retained and promoted students. They also imply that the educational and opportunity costs associated with retaining a student in the early grades are substantially less than a full year of per pupil spending and foregone earnings. (Contains 10 figures, 11 tables, and 19 footnotes.)

Schools that have not made adequate yearly progress in increasing student academic achievement are required, under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), to offer children in low-income families the opportunity to receive supplemental educational services (SES). In research conducted in Milwaukee Public Schools, the authors explore whether parents and students are aware of their eligibility and options for extra tutoring under NCLB, and who among eligible students registers for SES. Using the best information available to school districts, the authors estimate the effects of SES in increasing students' reading and math achievement. They find no average impacts of SES attendance on student achievement gains and use qualitative research to explore possible explanations for the lack of observed effects. Appendices include: (1) Supplemental Education Services Evaluation Focus Group Protocol; and (2) Milwaukee Public Schools 2006-2007 Supplemental Education Services Student Survey. (Contains 8 tables and 19 notes.) [This paper was presented at the "NCLB: Emerging Findings Research Conference" at the Urban Institute, Washington, D.C. on August 12, 2009.]

The practice of tracking and ability grouping--the division of students into separate tracks, classes, and groups for instruction based on their purported interests and abilities--has long been debated. Evidence from decades of research indicates that tracking magnifies inequality between high and low achievers without raising achievement overall, as high achievers perform better in tracked systems while low achievers perform worse, compared to similar students in mixed-ability contexts. These findings have been sustained in recent work, which has also advanced in three areas. First, international studies have yielded results that are generally consistent with those previously found for the U.S. and U.K. Second, new attempts to reduce or eliminate tracking have suggested ways in which some of the obstacles to reducing the practice may be overcome. Third, new work on classroom assignment and instruction has identified approaches that may capture the benefits of differentiation for meeting students' varied needs without giving rise to the consequences for inequality that commonly accompany tracking and ability grouping. These findings in turn call for new research and experimentation in practice. (Contains 5 footnotes.) [This paper was prepared for the "The Routledge International Handbook of the Sociology of Education," edited by Michael W. Apple, Stephen J. Ball, and Luis Armand Gandin. New York: Routledge, in press.]

What to do about persistently low-performing schools is a pressing challenge for policymakers and educators across the nation. Schools that fail to make "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) for five consecutive years under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) must be "restructured". The 3,500 schools in the United States currently in restructuring are pursuing a variety of different strategies, but little research has been done on their implementation or effectiveness. The state of Hawaii has chosen to partner with outside organization in forty-four of its ninety-two restructuring schools--a much greater level than mainland states--and its unusual procurement and accountability frameworks for managing these partnerships offer unique insights to states considering a similar approach. This paper looks at the support mechanisms that Hawaii has put into place to facilitate partnerships with these "diverse providers" and at how restructuring schools may have benefited from those arrangements. (Contains 6 figures.)

This paper analyzes households' response to the introduction of intra-district school choice and examines the impact of exercising this choice on student test scores in Pinellas County Schools, one of the largest school districts in the United States. Households react strongly to the incentives created by such programs, leading to significant changes in the frequency of exercising alternative public schooling options, as well as changes in the composition of the "opt out" students. However, using "proximity to public alternatives" as an instrument for opting out of the "assigned" public school, the author finds no significant benefit of opting out on student achievement. Also, the author finds those who opt out of their default public schools often perform significantly worse on standardized tests than similar students who stay behind. Results suggest that the short-run detrimental effects of opting out are stronger for students who opt out closer to the terminal grade of the school level, yet weaker for "disadvantaged" students, who typically constitute the proposed target of school choice reforms. (Contains 5 figures, 14 tables and 33 footnotes.)

Current U.S. policy initiatives to improve the U.S. education system, including No Child Left Behind, test-based evaluation of teachers and the promotion of competition, are misguided because they either deny or set to the side a basic body of evidence documenting that students from disadvantaged households on average perform less well in school than those from more advantaged families. Because these policy initiatives do not directly address the educational challenges experienced by disadvantaged students, they have contributed little--and are not likely to contribute much in the future--to raising overall student achievement or to reducing achievement and educational attainment gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students. Moreover, such policies have the potential to do serious harm. Addressing the educational challenges faced by children from disadvantaged families will require a broader and bolder approach to education policy than the recent efforts to reform schools. (Contains 2 tables, 3 figures and 20 footnotes.)

Conventional models of democratic accountability hinge on citizens' ability to evaluate government performance accurately, yet there is little evidence on the degree to which citizen perceptions of the quality of government services correspond to actual service quality. Using nationally representative survey data, we find that citizens' perceptions of the quality of specific public schools reflect publicly available information about the level of student achievement in those schools. The relationship between actual and perceived school quality is two to three times stronger for parents of school-age children, who have the most contact with schools and arguably the strongest incentive to be informed. However, this relationship does not differ by homeowner status or by respondents' race, ethnicity, income, or education. A regression discontinuity analysis of an oversample of Florida residents confirms that public accountability systems can have a causal effect on citizen perceptions of service quality. The appendix section includes the following tables: (1) Relationship Between School Characteristics and Respondents' School Ratings, Marginal Effects from Ordered Probit Models; (2) Descriptive Statistics, By Whether Respondent Identified Local Elementary and Middle Schools; and (3) Relationship Between Schools' Demographic Characteristics and Respondents' Ratings, by Respondent Characteristics. (Contains 11 tables, 1 figure, and 17 footnotes.)

This paper is the first to systematically document the relationship between individual teacher performance incentives and student achievement using United States data. We combine data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey on schools, students, and their families with our own survey conducted in 2000 regarding the use of teacher incentives. This survey on teacher incentives has unique data on frequency and magnitude of merit raises and bonuses, teacher evaluation, and teacher termination. We find that test scores are higher in schools that offer individual financial incentives for good performance. Moreover, the estimated relationship between the presence of merit pay in teacher compensation and student test scores is strongest in schools that may have the least parental oversight. The association between teacher incentives and student performance could be due to better schools adopting teacher incentives or to teacher incentives eliciting more effort from teachers; it is impossible to rule out the former explanation with our cross-sectional data. (Contains 6 tables and 3 footnotes.) [This report was supported by the Warrington College of Business Administration.]

This study compared more than 1,000 high school students who participated in service-learning programs with those who did not participate in schools matched for similar demographics and student achievement profiles. The intention was to estimate the effects of service-learning compared to more traditional ways of teaching similar subject areas. The outcomes measured ranged from civic knowledge, behaviors, and dispositions to school engagement factors, such as attachment to school and enjoyment of coursework, that generally predict academic success. Students came from sites in the southeast, north central, and western parts of the United States. More than half of the students in the sample were Latino/Hispanic. Although service-learning students scored higher than comparison students on several outcomes, most of the differences were not statistically significant. Service-learning students were significantly more likely to say that they intended to vote and that they enjoyed school. There were substantial differences in outcomes among the various service-learning programs in the study. The study suggests that service-learning is effective when it is implemented well, but it is no more effective than conventional social studies classes when the conditions are not optimal. In particular: (1) Student outcomes improved when service-learning programs lasted longer, although year-long programs often had slightly less benefit than semester-long programs; (2) Teacher characteristics were related to outcomes--Number of years of teaching experience was significantly related to some student outcomes (valuing school, enjoying math and science, civic skills, and civic dispositions). Longer experience using service-learning was associated with higher civic knowledge, civic dispositions, and efficacy scores; (3) The type of service project was related to the outcomes. Students who engaged in direct service (e.g., tutoring or visiting seniors) were most attached to their communities--Students who engaged in indirect service (e.g., fundraising or research) showed the highest levels of academic engagement. Students who engaged in political or civic action (e.g., circulating a petition or organizing a community forum) scored highest on civic knowledge and civic dispositions; and (4) The literature has identified a set of best practices or "Essential Elements" of service-learning. The study found that some of these elements were related to positive student outcomes, but some were not. who did not use service-learning were almost as likely as those who did to use "active" instructional techniques. Thus, based on this study, it does not appear that service-learning competes against passive, lecture-style classes. Instead, it competes against mixed forms of instruction that include student projects, presentations, debates, and field trips. The study found that the use of active teaching techniques was most beneficial for student outcomes, and service-learning conferred a small additional benefit over other active pedagogies. (Contains 41 exhibits.) [This working paper was produced by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE).]

This paper presents key indicators of educational and employment status for students making the transition from adolescence to early adulthood in selected Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The data that are presented include international comparisons of student achievement, educational attainment, literacy and unemployment among young adults. Data on expenditures for education are presented as a measure of national investment in education. It is a selective account, presenting data on important educational markers from international surveys and collections, offered as representative of key aspects of transitioning from education to the workforce in each country. To ensure comparability of data across countries, the data are derived from international surveys, or data collection efforts in which data have been harmonized. The time frame to which the data refer is the middle of the 1990s, between 1994-96. The countries chosen for comparison are OECD members that are representative of the regions of Europe (Northern, Central, Southern, and Eastern), English-speaking countries, and Asia. The coverage of countries varies by source, as the same countries did not participate in each of the surveys and data collections. However, every effort was made to include seven countries that are of particular interest, and they are the focus of the discussion in the text and appear in the figures when data are available: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Italy. An appendix presents: Description of School Systems in Seven Countries.

Two important sets of performance indicators for institutions of higher education have become established in the United Kingdom: research quality ratings and teaching quality ratings. The research quality ratings and, to a lesser extent, the teaching quality ratings influence the level of government funding provided to higher education institutions. This paper considers the correlations between the two ratings and the possible consequences of policies which reshape the higher education sector by concentrating research resources in a limited number of institutions. Comparisons are made between quality assurance/assessment approaches in the United Kingdom and the United States, finding that U.S. higher education is much larger, more heterogeneous and has less government control than U.K. higher education, While the U.S. system of colleges and universities is generally unranked (by those responsible for accreditation), the UK system includes rankings. Use of use various analytical approaches to compare teaching and research ratings for both systems concluded that it remains unclear whether the measurement standards will lead to improvements in teaching and research. (Contains 38 references.) (Author/DM)

"Turn and Face the Strain: Age Demographic Change and the Near Future of American Education" outlines a fierce battle looming between the needs of public health care and education. A crisis is fast approaching that makes comprehensive improvement of America's public schools more important than ever. Faced with rapidly expanding populations of the young and the old, working age taxpayers will experience the growing strain of insufficient tax revenue to fund public services from now until the foreseeable future. One solution to the crisis: an American education system that leads to a college and career-ready generation prepared for high-wage job earnings in a competitive global economy. This two-page policy brief summarizes the primary components of the predicament and choice options for a changing demography. [For the full report, see ED574383.]

In this report, the authors examine the extent to which states' current (or planned) accountability systems for elementary and middle schools attend to the needs of high-achieving students, and how these systems might be redesigned under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to better serve all students. In their view, states can and should take four steps to ensure that the needs of high achievers are prioritized under ESSA: (1) For the first academic indicator required by ESSA ("academic achievement"), reward schools for getting more students to an "advanced" level; (2) For the second academic indicator expected by ESSA ("student growth"), rate schools using a "true growth model," i.e., one that looks at the progress of individual students at all achievement levels and not just those who are low-performing or below the "proficient" line; (3) Include "gifted students" (or "high-achieving students") as a subgroup, and report their results separately and (4) When determining summative school ratings, make "growth for all students" count for at least half of the rating. Based on these four design features, the authors rate states' current (or planned) accountability systems using a rubric and the most recent publicly available information. This rubric is the basis for two sets of ratings: one for the thirty-nine states (plus the District of Columbia) that calculate summative school ratings (or intend to) and one for the eleven states that don't take this step (or don't plan to). The ratings suggest that the overwhelming majority of current (and planned) state accountability systems provide schools with few incentives to focus on their high-achieving students. In fact, the analysis presented herein indicates that just four states--Arkansas, Ohio, Oregon, and South Carolina--have truly praiseworthy systems when it comes to focusing attention on these students. The results also highlight the specific areas where states need to improve. Only four states (Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, and Oregon) base at least half of a school's rating on "growth for all students," and seven states and the District of Columbia assign no weight to this measure. (Eleven states don't calculate summative school ratings.) Given that student growth is the best way to evaluate schools' impact on student achievement--and the best way to signal that all kids matter--this finding is extremely alarming. Just five states (Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, and Wyoming) include high-achieving or gifted students as a subgroup and separately report their results. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia rate (or plan to rate) schools' achievement using a model that gives extra credit for students who achieve at an "advanced" level, such as a performance index. Unfortunately, draft regulations published by the Department of Education appear to disallow such indices, and those fourteen states may be required to resume measuring academic achievement via proficiency rates alone. For this reason, the authors have one major recommendation for the Department of Education: All states to rate academic achievement using a performance index. Such an allowance is both consistent with ESSA and in the best interests of students. The Department's final regulations should encourage performance metrics that account for the achievement of all students. [Foreword by Chester E. Finn, Jr.]

If school closures and social-distancing experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic impeded children's skill development, they may leave a lasting legacy in human capital. To understand the pandemic's effects on school children, this paper combines a review of the emerging international literature with new evidence from German longitudinal time-use surveys. Based on the conceptual framework of an education production function, we cover evidence on child, parent, and school inputs and students' cognitive and socio-emotional development. The German panel evidence shows that children's learning time decreased severely during the first school closures, particularly for low-achieving students, and increased only slightly one year later. In a value-added model, learning time increases with daily online class instruction, but not with other school activities. The review shows substantial losses in cognitive skills on achievement tests, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Socio-emotional wellbeing also declined in the short run. Structural models and reduced-form projections suggest that unless remediated, the school closures will persistently reduce skill development, lifetime income, and economic growth and increase inequality. [This paper was prepared for the XXIII European Conference of the Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti on "Long-term socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic."]

We consider the question whether pupils from the lower social strata perform better in private government-dependent schools than in public or private-independent schools, using the PISA 2000 data on European high schools. In the eighty's, Coleman and Hoffer (1987) found in the USA that the performance of these pupils was better at religious schools than at comparable public schools. Dronkers and Robert (2003) found in PISA-data for 19 comparable countries that private government-dependent schools are more effective then comparable public schools, also after controlled for characteristics of pupils and parents and the social composition of the school. The main explanation appeared to be a better school climate in private government-dependent schools. Private independent schools were less effective than comparable public schools, but only after controlling for the social composition of the school. As a follow-up we now investigate, again with the PISA-data of these 19 countries, whether this positive effect of private government-dependent schools differs between pupils from different strata. We use various indicators to measure social strata: social, cultural and economic. We expect that the thesis of Coleman & Hoffer does hold for private government-dependent schools, because in these 19 countries they are mostly religious schools, which have more opportunities to form functional communities and create social capital. But for private independent schools, which due to their commercial foundation are less often functional communities, this relation is not expected to hold. However, the results show that public and private schools have mostly the same effects for the same kind of pupils and thus mostly not favor one kind of pupils above another kind of pupils. But private government-dependent schools are slightly more effective for pupils with less cultural capital. However, private independent schools are also more effective for pupils from large families or low status families. (Contains 4 tables, 12 notes and a list of 25 Literature Resources .)

This piece of research project has demonstrated that there is a gap in educational achievement between parents' access to social capital and children's educational outcomes in a global context by examining England, United States and China specifically. Through examining educational resources, from in-school factors, such as facilities, teacher quality and teacher to student ratio, to out-of-school factors, such as family structure, socioeconomic status, and community values. This research paper evaluates several theories of social capital in the hopes of providing an explanation for why this achievement gap exists.The literature review outlines an analogy between Diamond's (1999) geographic luck theory and the education system in a global context. The review of the literature also examines the relationship between parents' access to socioeconomic background and academic performance across diverse backgrounds. This paper shows the importance of all kinds of resources to academic achievement and how social capital plays a consequential role in the students' educational outcomes.

Building a strong, diverse teacher workforce in sufficient numbers requires understanding of the points along the pathway into the teaching profession where aspiring teachers are most likely lost. Currently, policymakers, state education agencies, and teacher prep programs have limited insight into the obstacles along this pathway, largely due to incomplete or inaccurate data. This makes it hard to identify when and why prospective teachers, particularly persons of color, elect not to consider teaching or, having started down the pathway, exit prematurely. In this study, National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) focuses on a pivotal point for elementary teachers: when teacher candidates take their licensure tests on the content knowledge defined by states as necessary for the job of teaching. States generally expect elementary teachers to have foundational knowledge in English/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. Low rates of candidates passing licensure tests, especially for candidates of color, have become the subject of considerable debate in states across the country and have some states questioning their testing regimes. These low pass rates present a challenge for policymakers and educator preparation programs working to both diversify the profession and also ensure that every classroom is staffed with a well-prepared teacher. This paper provides the framework for the pass rate data available for each state. While the focus here is on elementary content licensure tests, the analysis can be applied to any assessment on any subject or grade span. [This report was funded by the Gates Family Foundation.]

This paper examines the role of teachers in the implementation of citizenship education in Colombia. Consistent with its highly-decentralized school system, Colombia's National Program of Citizenship Competencies was developed with the participation of many local, national, and international partners. Among the most involved and most critical participants were the primary implementers of the reform: teachers. Teacher training is important to student achievement, but in a context that also seeks to teach democratic citizenship, training must be attentive to reciprocal learning and shared leadership. This paper highlights the impact of teacher training in one rural department and how a cross-cultural collaboration between Colombian and US-based educators benefited practitioners on both sides. Four key lessons on the design and delivery of professional development on citizenship education (and more broadly) are offered for educators and policymakers: the use of democratic pedagogy; the promotion and extension of teachers' self-awareness; the cross-pollination of perspectives across all levels; and a humble and inclusive expertise. (Contains 1 figure and 10 footnotes.)

The paper deals with the facts obtained from TIMSS 2003 (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study). This international comparative study, which includes 47 participant countries worldwide, explores dependence between eighth grade students' achievement in the areas of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and geography, and basic characteristics of context for teaching and learning in school and at home. In the sense, different options of using modern technology equipment and its influence to students' achievement are explored in the TIMSS 2003 assessment. The main topic of the paper is using computers and calculators in teaching and its implications to students' overall achievement at the end of primary school education. The TIMSS 2003 international overall results in this area show that using computers in teaching doesn't significantly contribute to better students' achievement in the field of mathematics and also show some level of significant influence on students' achievement in the field of science. Moreover, the results show that using calculators in mathematics teaching improve overall students' achievement. Connectedness between using computers/calculators and students' achievement is especially explored and presented in the frame of students' sample in four countries, the United States, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Serbia. (Contains 12 tables.) [This article is a result of the project "Education for Knowledge-Based Society" No. 149001 (2006-2010), financially supported by the Ministry for Science and Environmental Protection, Republic of Serbia. This article was also published in: The Fourth International Conference on Informatics, Educational Technology and New Media in Education: Proceedings (253-263). Sombor (Serbia): Faculty of Education.]