Glossary

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  • SACMEQ
    The Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (now SEACMEQ)
  • sample
    a subset of a target population that can be studied for purposes of making generalizations about the larger target population
    Author: Creswell (2008), p. 646
  • sample design
    all aspects and features of a specific sample, such as multiple stages or phases, stratification, and clustering
    Author: Sabine Meinck, IEA
  • sample size
    determines the number of units to be sampled
    Author: Sabine Meinck, IEA
  • sampling frame
    a list of all units belonging to the target population, or in the case of multiple-stage sampling, a list of all units containing the target population
    Author: Sabine Meinck, IEA
  • sampling weight
    a numeric value representing the inverse of the selection probability; in an ILSA, the final sampling weight (also called “design weight” or “estimation weight”) usually reflects all sampling stages and includes non-response adjustments
    Author: Sabine Meinck, IEA
  • SAQ
    survey activities questionnaire
  • scale
    metric used to summarize performance on a test or on a set of items in a background questionnaire
    Author: Eugene Gonzalez, ETS
  • scale anchoring process
    used to arrive at probabilistic descriptions of what study participants (e.g., students) know and can do at different levels of a distribution of scores
    Author: Eugene Gonzalez, ETS
  • scaling
    process of creating scales
    Author: Eugene Gonzalez, ETS
  • SCC
    SEACMEQ (previously SACMEQ) Co-ordinating Centre
  • SchQ
    school questionnaire
  • SDG
    sustainable development goal
  • SEA-PLM
    Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics
  • SEACMEQ
    The Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (previously SACMEQ)
  • SEAMEO
    Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization
  • secondary analyses
    analyses performed on data collected by others; these generally follow the primary analysis performed by the organization or agency responsible for collecting the data
    Author: Eugene Gonzalez, ETS
  • SES
    socio-economic status
  • significance
    the level of probability reflecting the maximum risk one is willing to accept that observed differences are due to chance; typically set at .01 (a 1% chance that a sample statistic will be due to chance) or .05 (5% chance)
    Author: Creswell (2008), p. 647
  • simple random sampling
    single-step method to ensure that every possible sample of size n has an equal chance of being selected, thus ensuring that each each unit in a sample has the same inclusion probability
    Author: Statistics Canada (2010), p. 93
  • SMIRC
    Science and Mathematics Item Review Committee
  • SRS
    simple random sampling
  • STEM
    science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
  • STEP
    Skills Towards Employment and Productivity; a study conducted by the World Bank
  • stratified sampling
    probability sampling technique by which a sampling frame is divided into homogeneous, mutually exclusive groups (strata) based on specific characteristics (e.g., region, gender), from which independent samples can then be drawn; stratification can be applied at each sampling stage

    Author: Sabine Meinck, IEA, based on Statistics Canada (2010), p. 104
  • sustainable development goals
    The 17 goals which are at the center of the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015; goal 4 is related to education: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”
  • SYS
    systematic sampling
  • systematic sampling
    a probability sampling procedure according to which units are selected from a population at regular intervals, beginning from a random starting point, until the desired sample size is reached
    Author: Nathalie Mertes, IEA, based on Statistics Canada (2010), p. 96