Science for Grades 4 and 8: Averages

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Table 23. Average science 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 The number in parentheses indicates years of school not grade in schooling.

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

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

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

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. Jordan did not participate in the science assessment at the 4th grade.

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 590 higher 3.7
Korea, Republic of 589 higher 2.0
Japan 569 higher 1.8
Russian Federation 567 higher 3.2
Hong Kong -CHN2 557 higher 2.9
Chinese Taipei-CHN 555 higher 1.8
Finland 554 higher 2.3
Kazakhstan 550 4.4
Poland 547 2.4
United States1, 2 546 2.2
Slovenia 543 2.4
Hungary 542 3.3
Sweden1 540 3.6
Norway (5)3 538 lower 2.6
England-GBR 536 lower 2.4
Bulgaria 536 5.9
Czech Republic 534 lower 2.4
Croatia 533 lower 2.1
Ireland 529 lower 2.4
Germany 528 lower 2.4
Lithuania1 528 lower 2.5
Denmark1, 2 527 lower 2.1
Canada1, 2, 4 525 lower 2.6
Serbia5 525 lower 3.7
Australia 524 lower 2.9
Slovak Republic 520 lower 2.6
Northern Ireland-GBR6 520 lower 2.2
Spain1 518 lower 2.6
Netherlands2 517 lower 2.7
Italy1 516 lower 2.6
Belgium (Flemish)-BEL2 512 lower 2.3
Portugal1 508 lower 2.2
New Zealand 506 lower 2.7
France 487 lower 2.7
Turkey 483 lower 3.3
Cyprus 481 lower 2.6
Chile 478 lower 2.7
Bahrain1 459 lower 2.6
Georgia4 451 lower 3.7
United Arab Emirates 451 lower 2.8
Qatar 436 lower 4.1
Oman 431 lower 3.1
Iran, Islamic Republic of 421 lower 4.0
Indonesia 397 lower 4.8
Saudi Arabia 390 lower 4.9
Morocco7 352 lower 4.7
Kuwait7 337 lower 6.2
Benchmarking participants
Florida-USA4 549 4.8
Ontario-CAN 530 lower 2.5
Quebec-CAN8 525 lower 4.1
Dubai-UAE 518 lower 1.8
Buenos Aires-ARG 418 lower 4.7
Abu Dhabi-UAE1 415 lower 5.6