CIES Secretariat Florida International University

Postlethwaite1
T. Neville Postlethwaite
1933–2009

Professor T. Neville Postlethwaite, an IEA Honorary Member, passed away on Sunday, 12 April 2009, at his home in London.
Professor Postlethwaite is recognized worldwide as the father of quantitative cross-national comparative educational research. His adventure with the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) started in 1962 when he left his position as research officer at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), in the UK, and assumed the position of executive director of IEA for its first decade (1962–1973). He later became chair of the association (1978–1986).
Professor Postlethwaite was international coordinator of the IEA First International Mathematics Study (1964) and Six Subject Study (1970–1971). As chair of IEA, he oversaw the initiation and implementation of other major studies, among them the Second Mathematics Study (1980–1982) and the Second Science Study (1983–1984), both of which provided data that enabled IEA to conduct its first international trend analyses of student competencies. He also was creator and international coordinator of what was, at the time, a very large study of reading literacy. Conducted during 1990 and 1991, the study attracted the participation of 30 education systems.

Postlethwaite2
Professor Postlethwaite (centre) at the Honorary Members Panel (49th IEA General Assembly in Berlin), with Tjeerd Plomp and David Robitaille.

Under Professor Postlethwaite’s leadership, IEA developed research programs, methodologies, and logistical procedures that continue to define the highest standards in comparative educational research. Many of the world’s leading educational researchers in the fields of data analysis, psychometrics, sampling, and instrument construction learned their trade through involvement with IEA and with Professor Postlethwaite personally.

Professor Postlethwaite was editor in chief of two editions of the monumental 12-volume International Encyclopedia of Education, and also the author of many books, research reports, journal articles, and special consultancy reports. He held the position of professor of comparative education at the University of Hamburg and was the executive director of the International Academy of Education (1986–1990). From 1992, he was a member of the Council of Consultant Fellows for UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning, and he, along with others, contributed to establishment of the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ). Professor Postlethwaite also created the prestigious International Journal of Educational Research and was its senior editor for many years. His research and teaching took him to many countries and to most continents.
IEA will remember Professor Postlethwaite for his research talents, his commitment to high quality and accuracy in research, and his willingness to teach others and make
his time available to assist other researchers with their work. We will also remember his wise advice on all matters educational, and his genuine dedication to using research as a pathway to improving the quality of education for children in all countries.

Thomas Neville Postlethwaite who has served IEA in successful as well as well as critical times passed away in London on 12 April 2009. Many of us remember well his precise strategic analysis of the organisation’s state and challenges, presented on the occasion of the 49th General Assembly in Berlin in October 2008. A very short time later, early in 2009, he noticed first symptoms of his malign illness for which there was no cure.Neville was born on 2 February 1933 in Brigham, England. His father died when Neville was only one month old, so it proved difficult for him to obtain an education matching his talents and aspirations. Access to studies at the University of Durham was facilitated – at least in part – by savings from a two-year service with the Royal Air Force, 1951 to 1953. Subsequent experience from teaching at St. Albans College of Further Education (1957 to 1961) and employment at the National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales (1961/62) qualified him to apply and work successfully for the UNESCO Institute for Education (now: Institute for Lifelong Learning) in Hamburg Germany.-In 1963, Neville became Executive Director of IEA, working until 1972 in close cooperation with Torsten Husén who held a chair for Educational Psychology at the University of Stockholm, Sweden, since 1953. Neville coordinated work on the First International Mathematics Study (published in 1966) and in particular the activities around the IEA Six Subjects Survey (summarized by David Walker 1976).

During his stay in Stockholm, Neville earned the degree of a licentiate (Fil.lic.: 1965) and a doctorate (Fil. dr.: 1967) in Educational Psychology under Torsten Husén’s advice and chairmanship. Besides his duties as a Project Coordinator for IEA and researcher of the UNESCO Institute in Hamburg, he had incredibly little time – measured in terms of weeks – available for these major demonstrations of professional skill. In fact, this amazing level of productivity, in combination with exceptionally high intellectual standards, has been a key trait of Neville’s personality and represents, perhaps, the core of the admiration he enjoyed throughout his career.

Neville Postlethwaite’s service with the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) of UNESCO in Paris (1972 to 1976) was an important, if not the initial step in his lasting vigorous engagement for the educational needs of children and adolescents living under precarious conditions in parts of the world.

It was mainly during this time that Neville assumed the role of a competent and highly respected partner for many renowned researchers around the world, far beyond the limits of educational research proper. Leading scientist from Education and virtually all relevant neighbouring disciplines have been close friends and partners in perennial cooperation: John Carroll from Psychology and James Coleman from Sociology, to name but two of a long list of very great names. Neville’s membership of the Board of the International Academy of Education (1986 to 1990) and the Academia Europaea (Elected Member: 1993) are indicative of Neville’s position in the international scientific community. Medals for Distinguished Services from the University of Liège, Belgium, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, and the Arpad Kiss Distinguished Award from Hungary as well as an Honorary Doctorate from Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, are also indicative of this professional reputation.

Neville’s service as Chairman of IEA (1978 to 1986) was a period of exceptional productivity and growth of the Association. The fact that he took it upon himself to contribute substantially to the finalization of the Second International Science Study and to coordinate the International Reading Study (1988 to 1994) illustrates both the stupendous energy invested and the scientific significance achieved at the operational level of IEA work. It may serve as proof of Neville’s farsighted strategy in the interest of IEA that he succeeded, during his time as Professor of Comparative Education at the University of Hamburg (1976 to 1995), in laying the foundations for the IEA Data Processing Centre, now a key element in the institutional success of the organization.

The number of books and articles authored again testifies to the amazing productivity as well as the intellectual quality in Neville’s professional life. In addition, he did much to enhance the public visibility of IEA, not in the least by obtaining significant support for IEA publications from Pergamon Press, a leading independent publishing house at the time. The most widely noted contribution to the scientific literature is probably incorporated in the two editions of the ten/twelve-volume International Encyclopaedia of Educational Research which he edited together with Torsten Husén. The intensity with which this work was conceptualised and conducted, made him undoubtedly one of the best connected and most wide-read members of our scientific community.

Those who have known Neville Postlethwaite personally could and can not but admire his and Trudi, his wife’s, courage in facing personal challenges – the fatal illness of one of their daughters and finally Neville’s own. His friends were enchanted by his musical interests and talents. And apart from Neville’s intellectual qualities, which have turned every bit of work with him into a source of challenge and enrichment, his good humour will remain unforgotten.
We have lost a wonderful friend and a great, inspiring colleague.


	CIES Secretariat Florida International University 312 ZEB Miami, FL 33199
	Number 150
		T. Neville Postlethwaite 1933–2009 Professor T. Neville Postlethwaite, an IEA Honorary Member, passed away on Sunday, 12 April 2009, at his home in London. Professor Postlethwaite is recognized worldwide as the father of quantitative cross-national comparative educational research. His adventure with the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) started in 1962 when he left his position as research officer at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), in the UK, and assumed the position of executive director of IEA for its first decade (1962–1973). He later became chair of the association (1978–1986). Professor Postlethwaite was international coordinator of the IEA First International Mathematics Study (1964) and Six Subject Study (1970–1971). As chair of IEA, he oversaw the initiation and implementation of other major studies, among them the Second Mathematics Study (1980–1982) and the Second Science Study (1983–1984), both of which provided data that enabled IEA to conduct its first international trend analyses of student competencies. He also was creator and international coordinator of what was, at the time, a very large study of reading literacy. Conducted during 1990 and 1991, the study attracted the participation of 30 education systems. Professor Postlethwaite (centre) at the Honorary Members Panel (49th IEA General Assembly in Berlin), with Tjeerd Plomp and David Robitaille. Under Professor Postlethwaite’s leadership, IEA developed research programs, methodologies, and logistical procedures that continue to define the highest standards in comparative educational research. Many of the world’s leading educational researchers in the fields of data analysis, psychometrics, sampling, and instrument construction learned their trade through involvement with IEA and with Professor Postlethwaite personally. Professor Postlethwaite was editor in chief of two editions of the monumental 12-volume International Encyclopedia of Education, and also the author of many books, research reports, journal articles, and special consultancy reports. He held the position of professor of comparative education at the University of Hamburg and was the executive director of the International Academy of Education (1986–1990). From 1992, he was a member of the Council of Consultant Fellows for UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning, and he, along with others, contributed to establishment of the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ). Professor Postlethwaite also created the prestigious International Journal of Educational Research and was its senior editor for many years. His research and teaching took him to many countries and to most continents. IEA will remember Professor Postlethwaite for his research talents, his commitment to high quality and accuracy in research, and his willingness to teach others and make his time available to assist other researchers with their work. We will also remember his wise advice on all matters educational, and his genuine dedication to using research as a pathway to improving the quality of education for children in all countries. IEA Secretariat Photos@Jan Minkiewicz ____________________________________________ Prof. em. Dr. Dr. h.c. T. Neville Postlethwaite Thomas Neville Postlethwaite who has served IEA in successful as well as well as critical times passed away in London on 12 April 2009. Many of us remember well his precise strategic analysis of the organisation’s state and challenges, presented on the occasion of the 49th General Assembly in Berlin in October 2008. A very short time later, early in 2009, he noticed first symptoms of his malign illness for which there was no cure.Neville was born on 2 February 1933 in Brigham, England. His father died when Neville was only one month old, so it proved difficult for him to obtain an education matching his talents and aspirations. Access to studies at the University of Durham was facilitated – at least in part – by savings from a two-year service with the Royal Air Force, 1951 to 1953. Subsequent experience from teaching at St. Albans College of Further Education (1957 to 1961) and employment at the National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales (1961/62) qualified him to apply and work successfully for the UNESCO Institute for Education (now: Institute for Lifelong Learning) in Hamburg Germany.-In 1963, Neville became Executive Director of IEA, working until 1972 in close cooperation with Torsten Husén who held a chair for Educational Psychology at the University of Stockholm, Sweden, since 1953. Neville coordinated work on the First International Mathematics Study (published in 1966) and in particular the activities around the IEA Six Subjects Survey (summarized by David Walker 1976). During his stay in Stockholm, Neville earned the degree of a licentiate (Fil.lic.: 1965) and a doctorate (Fil. dr.: 1967) in Educational Psychology under Torsten Husén’s advice and chairmanship. Besides his duties as a Project Coordinator for IEA and researcher of the UNESCO Institute in Hamburg, he had incredibly little time – measured in terms of weeks – available for these major demonstrations of professional skill. In fact, this amazing level of productivity, in combination with exceptionally high intellectual standards, has been a key trait of Neville’s personality and represents, perhaps, the core of the admiration he enjoyed throughout his career. Neville Postlethwaite’s service with the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) of UNESCO in Paris (1972 to 1976) was an important, if not the initial step in his lasting vigorous engagement for the educational needs of children and adolescents living under precarious conditions in parts of the world. It was mainly during this time that Neville assumed the role of a competent and highly respected partner for many renowned researchers around the world, far beyond the limits of educational research proper. Leading scientist from Education and virtually all relevant neighbouring disciplines have been close friends and partners in perennial cooperation: John Carroll from Psychology and James Coleman from Sociology, to name but two of a long list of very great names. Neville’s membership of the Board of the International Academy of Education (1986 to 1990) and the Academia Europaea (Elected Member: 1993) are indicative of Neville’s position in the international scientific community. Medals for Distinguished Services from the University of Liège, Belgium, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, and the Arpad Kiss Distinguished Award from Hungary as well as an Honorary Doctorate from Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, are also indicative of this professional reputation. Neville’s service as Chairman of IEA (1978 to 1986) was a period of exceptional productivity and growth of the Association. The fact that he took it upon himself to contribute substantially to the finalization of the Second International Science Study and to coordinate the International Reading Study (1988 to 1994) illustrates both the stupendous energy invested and the scientific significance achieved at the operational level of IEA work. It may serve as proof of Neville’s farsighted strategy in the interest of IEA that he succeeded, during his time as Professor of Comparative Education at the University of Hamburg (1976 to 1995), in laying the foundations for the IEA Data Processing Centre, now a key element in the institutional success of the organization. The number of books and articles authored again testifies to the amazing productivity as well as the intellectual quality in Neville’s professional life. In addition, he did much to enhance the public visibility of IEA, not in the least by obtaining significant support for IEA publications from Pergamon Press, a leading independent publishing house at the time. The most widely noted contribution to the scientific literature is probably incorporated in the two editions of the ten/twelve-volume International Encyclopaedia of Educational Research which he edited together with Torsten Husén. The intensity with which this work was conceptualised and conducted, made him undoubtedly one of the best connected and most wide-read members of our scientific community. Those who have known Neville Postlethwaite personally could and can not but admire his and Trudi, his wife’s, courage in facing personal challenges – the fatal illness of one of their daughters and finally Neville’s own. His friends were enchanted by his musical interests and talents. And apart from Neville’s intellectual qualities, which have turned every bit of work with him into a source of challenge and enrichment, his good humour will remain unforgotten. We have lost a wonderful friend and a great, inspiring colleague. 20 April 2009 Rainer H. Lehmann

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