ENC Launches New Web Site

EDUCATORS WORLDWIDE CAN COMPARE STUDENTS ON-LINE

COLUMBUS -- The Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for 
Mathematics and Science Education at The Ohio State 
University unveiled a new World Wide Web site Monday (3/30) 
that will give teachers, parents and education leaders the 
resources they need to understand the Third International 
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).  The Web site's 
address is http://timss.enc.org.

TIMSS compared the math and science abilities among 
fourth, eighth and 12th graders from 40 countries, including 
the United States.  The results allow educators worldwide to 
examine what they are doing in their educational systems and 
how their students compare with others in a variety of math 
and science subjects.

Attaining Excellence: A TIMSS Resource Kit, developed 
by the U.S. Department of Education, is part of ENC's TIMSS 
Web site.  This resource kit is designed to provide 
educators, parents, business leaders, government officials
and community leaders with the information necessary to help 
students, teachers and school officials gauge how their 
efforts compare with international education endeavors.  
ENC's project is also available on a free CD-ROM.

"This Web site is topical in nature, with sections on 
education, curricula, teaching and achievement," said 
Leonard Simutis, director of the ENC.  "Secondly, it 
increases access to resources of interest to teachers by 
making the materials available on-line for free."

"TIMSS is a benchmark of where we are, and it's 
important to use these results to guide our efforts when we 
talk about what is working and what isn't," said Steve 
Weaver, coordinator of federal and state relations for ENC.  
In addition to math and science proficiency, the TIMSS Web 
site also includes information on educational culture, 
curriculum analysis and teaching practice.

"We hope having the resources on-line allows teachers 
timely and easy access to this information," Simutis said.

The ENC was created by Congress in 1992 to identify, 
centralize and disseminate to teachers information about 
educational materials, particulary those produced with 
federal support.  It has built a collection of more than 
12,000 items.

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Contact: Leonard Simutis, (614) 292-1373; Simutis.1@osu.edu
Steve Weaver, (614) 292-9991; sweaver@enc.org