High and Low Performers

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Figure M1a. Average scores and 10th and 90th percentile scores of 15-year-old students on the PISA mathematics literacy scale, by education system: 2015

* p<.05. Score gap is significantly different from the U.S. 90th to 10th percentile score gap at the .05 level of statistical significance.
NOTE: This table shows the threshold (or cut) scores for the following: (a) 10th percentile- the bottom 10 percent of students; (b) 90th percentile- the top 10 percent of students. The percentile ranges are specific to each education system's distribution of scores, enabling users to compare scores across education systems. Education systems are ordered by score gap from smallest to largest. The OECD average is the average of the national averages of the OECD member countries, with each country weighted equally. Scores are reported on a scale from 0 to 1,000. Italics indicate non-OECD countries and education systems. B-S-J-G (China) refers to the four PISA participating China provinces: Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Guangdong. Results for Massachusetts and North Carolina are for public school students only. Although Argentina, Malaysia, and Kazakhstan participated in PISA 2015, technical problems with their samples prevent results from being discussed in this report.This figure corresponds to figure 5 in Performance of U.S. 15-Year-Old Students in Science, Mathematics, and Reading Literacy in an International Context (NCES 2017-048).
SOURCE: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), 2015.

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Table M1b. Average scores and 10th and 90th scores of 15-year-old students on the PISA mathematics literacy scale and percentile score gaps, by education system: 2015
	Percentile
	10th			Average			90th			90th to 10th
Education system	Score	s.e.		Score	s.e.		Score	s.e.		Score gap		s.e.
OECD average	373	0.7		490	0.4		605	0.6		232		0.9
Costa Rica	315	2.9		400	2.5		489	4.2		174		5.1
Dominican Republic	243	3.9		328	2.7		418	4.7		175		6.1
Algeria	271	3.8		360	3.0		452	4.4		181		5.8
Mexico	312	2.6		408	2.2		505	3.5		193		4.4
Kosovo	265	2.9		362	1.6		460	4.2		195		5.1
Colombia	293	3.1		390	2.3		492	3.3		199		4.5
Latvia	382	3.0		482	1.9		582	2.9		200		4.2
Indonesia	289	4.1		386	3.1		492	5.4		203		6.8
Macau (China)	439	2.4		544	1.1		643	2.5		204		3.5
Ireland	400	3.8		504	2.1		606	2.6		206		4.6
Thailand	313	3.7		415	3.0		521	5.2		208		6.4
Estonia	415	3.1		520	2.0		623	2.7		209		4.1
Denmark	405	3.2		511	2.2		614	2.9		209		4.3
Finland	404	3.8		511	2.3		614	2.9		210		4.7
Peru	283	2.6		387	2.7		495	4.3		212		5.1
Turkey	317	3.9		420	4.1		529	6.3		212		7.4
Tunisia	263	4.6		367	3.0		476	5.0		213		6.8
Russian Federation	387	4.6		494	3.1		601	3.8		214		5.9
Vietnam	388	5.4		495	4.5		604	6.9		215		8.8
Jordan	271	4.0		380	2.7		489	3.2		219		5.2
Norway	391	3.4		502	2.2		610	3.0		219		4.6
Spain	374	3.4		486	2.2		593	3.3		220		4.7
Chile	313	3.5		423	2.5		534	3.6		221		5.1
Albania	303	4.3		413	3.4		525	4.4		221		6.2
Romania	334	4.6		444	3.8		557	5.4		223		7.1
Montenegro, Republic of	308	2.8		418	1.5		531	2.3		223		3.7
Uruguay	309	2.7		418	2.5		532	3.6		224		4.5
Lithuania	365	3.8		478	2.3		590	3.5		225		5.2
Poland	391	4.1		504	2.4		617	3.6		226		5.5
Japan	416	4.4		532	3.0		643	4.2		227		6.1
Canada	400	3.2		516	2.3		627	3.2		227		4.5
Slovenia	394	2.5		510	1.3		622	3.0		228		4.0
Brazil	267	3.3		377	2.9		496	4.7		229		5.7
Croatia	351	4.2		464	2.8		580	3.6		229		5.5
United States	355	3.9		470	3.2		585	4.2		230		5.8
Germany	389	4.1		506	2.9		620	3.4		230		5.3
Buenos Aires (Argentina)	340	8.9		456	6.9		571	8.7		231		12.4
Hong Kong (China)	426	5.0		548	3.0		659	3.5		232		6.1
Sweden	376	4.4		494	3.2		609	3.9		233		5.9
Moldova, Republic of	303	3.7		420	2.5		536	4.1		233		5.5
Greece	336	5.3		454	3.8		570	3.7		234		6.5
Czech Republic	373	4.2		492	2.4		608	3.6		235		5.6
Netherlands	390	3.9		512	2.2		627	3.1		237		5.0
New Zealand	375	3.8		495	2.3		613	3.1		238		4.9
United Kingdom	371	3.7		492	2.5		610	3.1		239		4.8
Georgia	285	4.3		404	2.8		525	4.7		240		6.4
Cyprus	317	3.5		437	1.7		558	3.0		241		4.6
Italy	368	3.8		490	2.8		610	3.8		241		5.4
Iceland	367	3.6		488	2.0		608	4.0		241		5.4
Australia	371	2.5		494	1.6		613	2.8		242		3.8
Luxembourg	363	2.2		486	1.3		607	2.5		244		3.4
Macedonia, Republic of	251	3.0		371	1.3		496	3.4		245		4.5
Hungary	351	4.1		477	2.5		598	3.5		246		5.4
Singapore	436	2.6		564	1.5		682	2.4		247		3.5
Austria	370	4.5		497	2.9		618	3.7		247		5.9
Slovak Republic	349	4.2		475	2.7		596	3.3		247		5.4
Switzerland	394	4.4		521	2.9		641	3.4		247		5.6
Portugal	365	3.8		492	2.5		614	3.6		249		5.2
France	364	3.9		493	2.1		613	2.7		249		4.8
United Arab Emirates	306	3.3		427	2.4		557	3.5		251		4.8
Trinidad and Tobago	294	3.0		417	1.4		545	3.3		251		4.5
Bulgaria	315	5.2		441	4.0		568	5.6		253		7.6
Belgium	374	3.9		507	2.4		630	2.5		255		4.7
Korea, Republic of	391	5.5		524	3.7		649	4.3		258		7.0
Qatar	278	2.0		402	1.3		536	2.0		258		2.9
Lebanon	268	5.2		396	3.7		531	5.5		263		7.6
Chinese Taipei	404	4.2		542	3.0		670	4.6		266		6.3
Israel	332	4.7		470	3.6		601	4.9		269		6.8
B-S-J-G (China)	388	5.9		531	4.9		664	5.6		276		8.2
Malta	331	3.5		479	1.7		616	3.0		285		4.7
U.S. states and territories
Puerto Rico	284	6.5		378	5.6		481	10.4		197		12.3
Massachusetts	389	7.5		500	5.5		607	6.1		218		9.7
North Carolina	358	5.8		471	4.4		583	5.7		225		8.1

Score gap is larger than the U.S. percentile score gap at the .05 level of statistical significance. Score gap is smaller than the U.S. percentile score gap at the .05 level of statistical significance. NOTE: This table shows the threshold (or cut) scores for the following: (a) 10th percentile- the bottom 10 percent of students and (b) 90th percentile- the top 10 percent of students. The percentile ranges are specific to each education system's distribution of scores, enabling users to compare scores across education systems. Education systems are ordered by score gap from smallest to largest. The percentile score gap for each education system is the difference between its 90th and 10th percentile scores.The OECD average is the average of the national averages of the OECD member countries, with each country weighted equally. Scores are reported on a scale from 0 to 1,000. Standard error is noted by s.e. Italics indicate non-OECD countries and education systems. B-S-J-G (China) refers to the four PISA participating China provinces: Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Guangdong. Results for Massachusetts and North Carolina are for public school students only. Although Argentina, Malaysia, and Kazakhstan participated in PISA 2015, technical problems with their samples prevent results from being discussed in this report. This table corresponds to Figure 5 in Performance of U.S. 15-Year-Old Students in Science, Mathematics, and Reading Literacy in an International Context (NCES 2017-048). SOURCE: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), 2015.