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Mathematics for Grades 4 and 8: Averages

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Table 2. Average mathematics scores of 8th-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 National Target Population does not include all of the International Target Population.

3 Met guidelines for sample participation rates only 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 Reservations about reliability because the percentage of students with achievement too low for estimation exceeds 15 percent but does not exceed 25 percent.

7 Reservations about reliability because the percentage of students with achievement too low for estimation exceeds 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 621 higher 3.2
Korea, Rep. of 606 higher 2.6
Chinese Taipei-CHN 599 higher 2.4
Hong Kong-CHN 594 higher 4.6
Japan 586 higher 2.3
Russian Federation 538 higher 4.7
Kazakhstan 528 5.3
Canada2, 3 527 higher 2.2
Ireland 523 2.7
United States3 518 3.1
England-GBR 518 4.2
Slovenia 516 2.1
Hungary 514 3.8
Norway (9)4 512 2.3
Lithuania1 511 2.8
Israel5 511 4.1
Australia 505 lower 3.1
Sweden 501 lower 2.8
Italy1 494 lower 2.5
Malta 494 lower 1.0
New Zealand3 493 lower 3.4
Malaysia 465 lower 3.6
United Arab Emirates 465 lower 2.0
Turkey 458 lower 4.7
Bahrain 454 lower 1.4
Georgia1, 2 453 lower 3.4
Lebanon 442 lower 3.6
Qatar6 437 lower 3.0
Iran, Islamic Rep. of6 436 lower 4.6
Thailand 431 lower 4.8
Chile6 427 lower 3.2
Oman6 403 lower 2.4
Kuwait6 392 lower 4.6
Egypt6 392 lower 4.1
Jordan7 386 lower 3.2
Morocco7 384 lower 2.3
Saudi Arabia7 368 lower 4.6
 
Benchmarking participants
Quebec-CAN8 543 higher 3.9
Ontario-CAN 522 2.9
Dubai-UAE 512 2.1
Florida-USA2 493 lower 6.4
Abu Dhabi-UAE 442 lower 4.7
Buenos Aires-ARG3,7 396 lower 4.2