TIMSS falls apart?

ester left a link to this story:

So why did the federal government quietly decide last year to drop out of an international study that would compare U.S. high-school students who take advanced science and math courses with their international counterparts?

The study, called TIMSS (Trends in Mathematics and Science Study) Advanced 2008, measures how high-school seniors are doing in algebra, geometry, calculus and physics with students taking similar subjects around the globe. In the past, the American results have been shockingly poor. In the last survey, taken in 1995, students from only two countries—Cyprus and South Africa—scored lower than U.S. school kids.

[snip]

Mark S. Schneider, the commissioner for the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, says the decision was made after a number of other countries—Australia, Germany and Finland—also decided not to participate. That left Armenia, Iran, Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Slovenia and Sweden in the study. “We looked at the countries who are participating, our scarce resources and our overextended staff,” says Schneider, “and we decided to give it a pass.”

The test, which would have been administered to about 4,000 high-school seniors, would have cost the federal government between $3 million and $10 million, Ewing says. The National Science Foundation, which is independent but funded by the government, declined to fund the exam as well.

[snip]

Advocates for the study are looking for private funders to step in and pay for the test. Patsy Wang-Iverson, who works for the Gabriella and Paul Rosenbaum Foundation in Stockton, N.J., a nonprofit organization that supports math advancement, has been approaching other foundations for money to sponsor the two-and-half-hour test. “We need this money in the next month so that Educational Testing Services [which administers it] can begin the crucial work needed to get the test off the ground.”

I think I know what this is.

My guess is we haven't pulled out of the "regular" TIMSS, which tests 4th & 8th graders. The number of countries taking part in the 12th grade test has always been smaller. I have a memory that Singapore isn't part of it because Singapore doesn't have a 12th grade.

(If radical galoisien or Cassy or someone else who knows the Singapore system can chime in here, that would be great. I'll post corrections, obviously.)

As for me, if Patsy Wang-Iversen thinks we should be part of the 12th grade TIMSS, then I think we should be part of the 12th grade TIMSS. I'll taking my cues from her.