The Board on International Comparative Studies in Education (BICSE) was established by the National Research Council (NRC) in 1988 at the request of the . Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the . National Science Foundation (NSF). Under its initial mandate, the board monitored . participation in large-scale international comparative studies. Beginning in 1998, BICSE expanded its charge to include synthesis, analysis, and strategic planning for international comparative education research and synthesis of lessons learned from past and current studies. The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) has been the focus of much of BICSE’s agenda in the 1990s. BICSE has monitored each phase of TIMSS and.
