The government shutdown has forced the postponement of a study showing how U.S. states stack up to nations around the world on math and science achievement.
The NAEP-TIMSS linking study, initially scheduled for release Oct. 3, uses states’ 2011 scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, in math and science to project how they would have scored on the Trends in International Math and Science Study, or TIMSS. That allows a comparison of U.S. states with countries and jurisdictions internationally.
Not only was the study’s release postponed due to the shutdown, but the website of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers NAEP, was also inaccessible.
The website for the international study center at Boston College that handles the TIMSS and other assessments was still working last week.