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