Special Analysis 2009

Mathematics results for 15-year-olds

Table 6. Average PISA scores of 15-year-old students on mathematics literacy scale and cutpoint scores for bottom and top 10 percent of students in each jurisdiction, by jurisdiction: 2006

Jurisdiction	TIMSS		Cutpoint score
Jurisdiction	Average score		Bottom 10 percent		Top 10 percent
All OECD jurisdictions	498	∆	379	∆	615	∆

OECD
Finland	548	∆	444	∆	652	∆
Korea, Republic of	547	∆	426	∆	664	∆
Netherlands	531	∆	412	∆	645	∆
Switzerland	530	∆	401	∆	652	∆
Canada	527	∆	416	∆	635	∆
Japan	523	∆	404	∆	638	∆
New Zealand	522	∆	401	∆	643	∆
Belgium	520	∆	381	∆	650	∆
Australia	520	∆	406	∆	633	∆
Denmark	513	∆	404	∆	621	∆
Czech Republic	510	∆	376	∆	644	∆
Iceland	506	∆	391	∆	618	∆
Austria	505	∆	373		630	∆
Germany	504	∆	375		632	∆
Sweden	502	∆	387	∆	617	∆
Ireland	501	∆	396	∆	608	∆
France	496	∆	369		617	∆
United Kingdom	495	∆	381	∆	612	∆
Poland	495	∆	384	∆	610	∆
Slovak Republic	492	∆	370		611	∆
Hungary	491	∆	377	∆	609	∆
Luxembourg	490	∆	368		610	∆
Norway	490	∆	373	∆	609	∆
Spain	480		366		593
United States	474		358		593
Portugal	466		348		583
Italy	462	▼	341	▼	584
Greece	459	▼	341	▼	575	▼
Turkey	424	▼	316	▼	550	▼
Mexico	406	▼	299	▼	514	▼

Non-OECD
Chinese Taipei	549	∆	409	∆	677	∆
Hong Kong-China	547	∆	423	∆	665	∆
Macao-China	525	∆	416	∆	632	∆
Liechtenstein	525	∆	402	∆	643	∆
Estonia	515	∆	411	∆	618	∆
Slovenia	504	∆	390	∆	623	∆
Lithuania	486	∆	369		602
Latvia	486	∆	378	∆	590
Azerbaijan	476		419	∆	536	▼
Russian Federation	476		363		592
Croatia	467		361		576	▼
Israel	442	▼	304	▼	581
Serbia, Republic of	435	▼	318	▼	553	▼
Uruguay	427	▼	296	▼	551	▼
Thailand	417	▼	317	▼	524	▼
Romania	415	▼	307	▼	523	▼
Bulgaria	413	▼	287	▼	543	▼
Chile	411	▼	302	▼	527	▼
Montenegro, Republic of	399	▼	291	▼	510	▼
Indonesia	391	▼	293	▼	498	▼
Jordan	384	▼	279	▼	489	▼
Argentina	381	▼	249	▼	508	▼
Colombia	370	▼	258	▼	482	▼
Brazil	370	▼	255	▼	487	▼
Tunisia	365	▼	250	▼	488	▼
Qatar	318	▼	212	▼	438	▼
Kyrgyz Republic	311	▼	204	▼	423	▼
∆ Score is higher than U.S. score.
▼Score is lower than U.S. score.
NOTE: Selected jurisdictions included all those that participated in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2006. Because PISA is principally an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study, the results for non-OECD jurisdictions are displayed separately from those of the OECD countries. Jurisdictions are ordered on the basis of average scores, from highest to lowest within the OECD countries and the non-OECD jurisdictions. Mathematics literacy scores are reported on a scale from 0 to 1,000. A cutpoint score is the threshold score for an established level of performance. The cutpoint scores for students in the top 10 percent is the 90th percentile score within the jurisdiction. The cutpoint score for students in the bottom 10 percent is the 10th percentile score within the jurisdiction. The tests for significance take into account the standard error for the reported difference. Thus, a small difference between the United States and one country may be significant while a large difference between the United States and another country may not be significant.
SOURCE: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). (2007). PISA 2006: Science Competencies for Tomorrow's World, Volume 2: Data, table 6.2c. Paris: Author.

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