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This paper explores the measurement capabilities of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in assessing school factors that influence student performance. We specifically focus on the 2015 assessments of the science performance of eighth graders in Sweden and Norway. This was the latest year when the two assessments were conducted in the same year and science was the major subject area in the PISA assessment, which was essential for maximizing the assessments’ comparability. Using multilevel models, the study identifies common and unique factors across the assessments and investigates the factors that influence student performance at different proficiency levels. The findings highlight the importance of school-level factors, which are significant in both assessments. Moreover, both assessments provide information on overlapping sets of factors that have varying influence on the performance of students with different proficiency levels. Overall, there are limited common factors between TIMSS and PISA. School factors vary between low-performing and high-performing schools, with differing significance in Norway and Sweden. The results indicate that TIMSS and PISA assessments offer complementary information, particularly for low-performing schools. Our findings suggest that different school types may benefit or suffer from distinct school factors. The findings are relevant for both educational professionals and policy-makers.

Decreasing performance in several core subjects among students in Sweden and the increasing segregation of schools are urgent issues in relation to equity in education, which has been a long-term goal in Sweden. The aim of this study is to identify factors in the school environment associated with student performance in PISA in mathematics at different performance levels in the Nordic countries. In order to separate the effects of school-level variables from the effects of student background factors, and to deal with the multistage sampling design used in PISA, multilevel analysis was used in this exploratory study. Based on data from PISA 2003 and 2012, which are the most recent assessments with a focus on mathematics, results have shown that a few school-level factors seemed to be associated with student success, and then mainly among low and medium-performing schools. Overall, school-level factors associated with success (or lack of it) partially differ between countries and over the years. These results have implications for educational professionals since some of the school-level factors identified inhibit potential for change.