• Public school students’ average science score was 545 at grade 4 and 530 at grade 8.
• Higher percentages of Florida 4th- and 8th-graders performed at or above each of the four TIMSS international benchmarks than the international medians. For example, 14 percent of 4th-graders and 13 percent of 8th-graders in Florida performed at or above the Advanced benchmark (625) compared to the international median of 5 percent at grade 4 and 4 percent at grade 8 (see figures 11 and 12, Highlights from TIMSS 2011).
• Males outperformed females by 9 score points on average in science at grade 4 (figure 13) and by 15 score points at grade 8 (see figure 14, Highlights from TIMSS 2011). In both grade 4 and grade 8, male and female students in Florida scored higher, on average, in science than the TIMSS scale average (table 2).
• At grade 4 and grade 8, White, Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial students’ average scores were higher than the TIMSS scale average, while Black students’ average scores were not measurably different from the TIMSS scale average (table 2).
• Students at grade 4 scored higher, on average, than the TIMSS scale average regardless of the level of poverty within public schools. At grade 8, students in public schools with at least 10 percent but less than 75 percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch scored, on average, higher than the TIMSS scale average, while the average score for students in public schools with 75 percent or more of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch was not measurably different from the TIMSS scale average.

Suggested Citation: Provasnik, S., Kastberg, D., Ferraro, D., Lemanski, N., Roey, S., and Jenkins, F. (2012). Highlights From TIMSS 2011: Mathematics and Science Achievement of U.S. Fourth- and Eighth-Grade Students in an International Context (NCES 2013-009). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC.