School Party

About the Task

In the School Party PSI task, fourth grade students were asked to plan a party for their school. Based on attendance at last year’s school party, they were asked to plan the party for 400 people. The party planning involved considering the price of the tickets and what decorations, food, and drinks to purchase for the party. The task is colorful and has a moderate degree of interactivity to keep students engaged. However, compared to the eTIMSS items, it had comparatively high levels of non-response for the last items (see Appendix A for details).

Screen 1 – Introduction

The task was presented in a series of eight screens, with Screen 1 (shown below) introducing the task. Screen 1 does not have any items. Following Screen 1 (introductory), Screens 2 through 8 (each with one or two items) guide the students through 12 mathematics items related to the party planning activities.