Associate Professor of Educational Theory and Policy Katerina Bodovski received funding from the National Science Foundation in August for her grant titled, “Education Systems’ Effects on Math and Science Achievement.”
Along with Soo-yong Byun, Assistant Professor of Educational Theory and Policy and co-principal investigator, Dr. Bodovski will study academic achievement in 40 countries using data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). The goal is to see if a country’s academic system’s characteristics—such as the number of private schools vs. public schools or the amount of standardization in curricula across the nation—are related to the country’s mean mathematics and science achievement ratings.
The researchers will examine data collected every four years between 1995 and 2011 to get a snapshot of what the countries’ academic achievement looked like during that span. They will also study changes in academic characteristics over time to see how they relate to each country’s change in academic world ranking.
“It’s a substantial amount of time when you consider everything that’s changed,” Dr. Bodovski said. “For example, the U.S. has gone through No Child Left Behind. South Korea used to have a very centralized education system, and it doesn’t anymore. We will see a lot of differences between countries and within each country over time.”
Dr. Bodovski received seed funding through the Population Research Institute, as well as support from the Educational Risk Initiative, which is jointly supported by the College of Education and the Children, Youth, and Families Consortium.
“Support from PRI and the Educational Risk Initiative was absolutely critical,” she said. “The success of research like this highlights how crucial research institutes are to the faculty at Penn State. Not only is seed funding important, but Penn State’s infrastructure support for research puts us at an advantage in a process that is very competitive.”