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Mathematics for Grades 4 and 8: Subscale Scores

Cognitive Subscales

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Table 5. Average mathematics cognitive domain scores of 4th-grade students, by education system: 2015
Education system Cognitive domain
Knowing Applying Reasoning
Average score s.e. Average score s.e. 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 The number in parentheses indicates years of school not grade in schooling.

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

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

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

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 2015 average score in reasoning. 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 0.0 500 lower 0.0 500 lower 0.0
Korea, Republic of 627 higher 2.9 595 higher 2.1 619 higher 2.5
Singapore1 631 higher 4.0 619 higher 4.0 603 higher 4.5
Hong Kong-CHN2 618 higher 3.1 621 higher 3.1 600 higher 3.2
Japan 601 higher 2.4 589 higher 2.1 595 higher 2.7
Chinese Taipei-CHN 620 higher 2.3 593 higher 2.1 576 higher 3.1
Russian Federation 556 higher 3.4 566 higher 3.7 570 higher 4.0
Norway (5)3 544 3.1 550 higher 2.6 556 higher 2.9
Kazakhstan 546 4.4 541 4.9 553 higher 4.6
Northern Ireland-GBR4 582 higher 3.9 575 higher 3.2 550 higher 3.3
Denmark1, 2 536 lower 3.3 538 2.8 548 higher 3.2
Poland 517 lower 2.4 541 2.1 546 higher 2.3
Czech Republic 519 lower 2.5 528 lower 2.4 544 higher 3.0
Netherlands2 521 lower 1.8 531 lower 1.7 543 higher 2.6
Sweden1 501 lower 3.4 521 lower 2.7 542 higher 3.3
Finland 530 lower 2.2 536 2.1 540 higher 3.1
England-GBR 554 3.3 544 3.2 540 higher 3.2
Belgium (Flemish)-BEL2 554 2.3 544 higher 2.2 536 2.7
Ireland 554 2.9 549 higher 2.2 535 2.7
Germany 524 lower 2.3 515 lower 2.2 535 2.4
Lithuania1 532 lower 2.5 537 2.7 534 2.8
Portugal1 548 2.6 540 2.4 532 2.3
United States1, 2 547 2.3 537 2.4 531 2.5
Hungary 532 lower 3.1 526 lower 3.3 529 3.6
Slovenia 517 lower 1.9 521 lower 2.1 524 lower 2.2
Australia 509 lower 3.5 521 lower 3.0 523 3.0
Canada1, 2, 5 505 lower 2.4 510 lower 2.3 521 lower 2.4
Bulgaria 527 lower 5.1 523 lower 5.6 521 5.8
Cyprus 519 lower 2.8 529 lower 2.8 519 lower 3.1
Serbia6 513 lower 3.5 521 lower 3.4 517 lower 3.8
Slovak Republic 491 lower 2.4 497 lower 2.5 515 lower 2.9
Croatia 502 lower 1.9 499 lower 1.9 507 lower 2.1
New Zealand 475 lower 2.6 497 lower 2.5 504 lower 2.7
Italy1 511 lower 2.9 504 lower 2.5 503 lower 3.3
Spain1 505 lower 2.4 505 lower 2.4 502 lower 2.5
France 484 lower 2.8 488 lower 3.1 491 lower 3.4
Turkey 491 lower 3.4 482 lower 3.5 466 lower 3.5
Chile 449 lower 2.8 462 lower 2.4 466 lower 2.3
Georgia5 466 lower 4.0 461 lower 4.1 452 lower 4.4
Bahrain1 453 lower 1.8 450 lower 1.6 447 lower 2.0
United Arab Emirates 453 lower 2.7 452 lower 2.5 445 lower 2.4
Qatar 444 lower 3.4 434 lower 3.5 431 lower 4.4
Iran, Islamic Republic of 429 lower 3.2 435 lower 2.9 426 lower 3.3
Oman 422 lower 2.7 428 lower 2.4 420 lower 2.4
Indonesia 395 lower 4.2 397 lower 3.6 397 lower 3.5
Jordan 389 lower 3.1 388 lower 3.1 385 lower 3.3
Saudi Arabia7 374 lower 4.6 382 lower 4.5 383 lower 4.3
Morocco 377 lower 3.7 375 lower 3.6 379 lower 3.6
Kuwait7 354 lower 4.5 348 lower 4.8 332 lower 5.0
Benchmarking participants
Quebec-CAN8 542 4.3 533 4.1 536 4.9
Florida-USA5 555 5.2 545 4.9 534 6.2
Ontario-CAN 505 lower 2.5 513 lower 2.3 524 2.6
Dubai-UAE 514 lower 2.0 510 lower 1.8 507 lower 1.7
Buenos Aires-ARG 432 lower 2.9 427 lower 3.0 437 lower 3.4
Abu Dhabi-UAE1, 7 418 lower 5.1 422 lower 4.8 414 lower 4.4