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International comparisons in educational research can be difficult to accomplish because the findings of individual countries may not be comparable due to study design or inherent country features that cannot be manipulated. Quantitative meta-analysis techniques have great potential in improving international comparisons. In this paper, participant countries/regions in an international study were treated as study populations, and meta-analytic techniques were used to synthesize study outcomes across countries. Homogeneity tests were conducted to determine whether there was a common population parameter across countries, outliers were identified empirically, moderator effects die to country characteristics were studied, and homogeneous country outcomes were combined by a variance-weighting method to yield an optimal parameter estimate. The study of interest in this paper was gender differences in students' perceptions about whether girls or boys will do better in mathematics. Data are a subset of data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), in which seventh- and eighth-graders from 25 countries participated. Multiple regression models were used to country-level analyses, and effect sizes were computed. Overall, the meta-analytic techniques were satisfactory in analyzing the TIMSS data, illustrating the potential of meta analysis in improving the validity of international comparison studies. Meta analysis appears to be capable of detecting substantial differences in country outcomes and effective in offering strategies to deal with the situation. Appendixes present tables of coding schemes and outcomes of moderators, independent variables and questionnaire items, and a summary of meta analytic results. (Contains 7 tables, 8 figures, and 20 references.) (SLD)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert