This study examines a linkage between the international mathematics scale of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 2011) and the mathematics assessment from the German’s National Educational Panel Study (NEPS).
The linking between these two studies was realized by a separate linking study that uses a single group design. The sample consists of N = 733 4th graders from 80 German primary schools, who completed TIMSS on a first day and NEPS test instruments on a second day.
With regard to different linking methodologies, we applied, among others, the equipercentile equating technique. The linking procedure leads to similar descriptive scale characteristics (means, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis) between the original scale and the re-scaled scores for the full sample. The linking results produce valid scores for subgroups (gender) as well. However, the method is not appropriate for linking scores of individual students.
Finally, the possibility of using other linking techniques will be discussed and an outlook on the linking of the NEPS test to other LSA studies will be given.