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Mathematics for Grades 4 and 8: Averages

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Table 1. Average mathematics scores of 4th-grade students, by education system: 2015
Education system Average score s.e.

higher icon Average score is higher than U.S. average score at the .05 level of statistical significance.

lower icon Average score is lower than U.S. average score at the .05 level of statistical significance.

1 National Defined Population covers 90 to 95 percent of the National Target Population.

2 Met guidelines for sample participation rates only after replacement schools were included.

3 Nearly satisfied guidelines for sample participation rates after replacement schools were included.

4 The number in parentheses indicates years of school not grade in schooling.

5 National Defined Population covers less than 90 percent of the National Target Population (but at least 77 percent).

6 National Target Population does not include all of the International Target Population.

7 Reservations about reliability because the percentage of students with achievement too low for estimation exceeds 15 percent but does not exceed 25 percent.

8 Did not satisfy guidelines for sample participation rates.

NOTE: Education systems are ordered by average score. Education systems that are not countries are designated by the appended three-letter international abbreviation for their country. Participants that did not administer TIMSS at the target grade are not shown; see the international report for their results. U.S. state data are based on public school students only. The TIMSS scale centerpoint is set at 500 points and represents the mean of the overall achievement distribution in 1995. The TIMSS scale is the same in each administration; thus, a value of 500 in 2015 equals 500 in 1995. Standard error is abbreviated as s.e. For TIMSS 2015, Norway revised its assessed population to students in their 5th and 9th years of schooling to obtain better comparisons with Sweden and Finland. However, in previous TIMSS cycles Norway assessed students in their 4th and 8th years of schooling, which were defined as 4th and 8th grades but have been redefined as 3rd and 7th grades because year 1 in Norway is now considered the equivalent of a year of kindergarten. To maintain trend with previous TIMSS cycles, in 2015 Norway also collected data from students in their 4th and 8th years of schooling, which is used in trend tables.

SOURCE: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), 2015.

TIMSS scale centerpoint 500 lower 0.0
Singapore1 618 higher 3.8
Hong Kong-CHN2 615 higher 2.9
Korea, Rep. of 608 higher 2.2
Chinese Taipei-CHN 597 higher 1.9
Japan 593 higher 2.0
Northern Ireland-GBR3 570 higher 2.9
Russian Federation 564 higher 3.4
Norway (5)4 549 higher 2.5
Ireland 547 higher 2.1
England-GBR 546 2.8
Belgium (Flemish)-BEL2 546 higher 2.1
Kazakhstan 544 4.5
Portugal1 541 2.2
United States1, 2 539 2.3
Denmark1, 2 539 2.7
Lithuania1 535 2.5
Finland 535 2.0
Poland 535 2.1
Netherlands2 530 lower 1.7
Hungary 529 lower 3.2
Czech Republic 528 lower 2.2
Bulgaria 524 lower 5.3
Cyprus 523 lower 2.7
Germany 522 lower 2.0
Slovenia 520 lower 1.9
Sweden1 519 lower 2.8
Serbia5 518 lower 3.5
Australia 517 lower 3.1
Canada 1, 2, 6 511 lower 2.3
Italy1 507 lower 2.6
Spain1 505 lower 2.5
Croatia 502 lower 1.8
Slovak Republic 498 lower 2.5
New Zealand 491 lower 2.3
France 488 lower 2.9
Turkey 483 lower 3.1
Georgia6 463 lower 3.6
Chile 459 lower 2.4
United Arab Emirates 452 lower 2.4
Bahrain1 451 lower 1.6
Qatar 439 lower 3.4
Iran, Islamic Rep. of 431 lower 3.2
Oman 425 lower 2.5
Indonesia 397 lower 3.7
Jordan 388 lower 3.1
Saudi Arabia7 383 lower 4.1
Morocco 377 lower 3.4
Kuwait7 353 lower 4.6
Benchmarking participants
Florida-USA6 546 4.7
Quebec-CAN8 536 4.0
Ontario-CAN 512 lower 2.3
Dubai-UAE 511 lower 1.4
Buenos Aires-ARG 432 lower 2.9
Abu Dhabi-UAE1, 7 419 lower 4.7