Science for Grades 4 and 8: Averages

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Table 24. Average science 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 Met guidelines for sample participation rates only after replacement schools were included.

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

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 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 597 higher 3.2
Japan 571 higher 1.8
Chinese Taipei-CHN 569 higher 2.1
Korea, Rep. of 556 higher 2.3
Slovenia 551 higher 2.4
Hong Kong-CHN 546 higher 3.9
Russian Federation 544 higher 4.2
England-GBR 537 3.8
Kazakhstan 533 4.4
Ireland 530 2.8
United States2 530 2.8
Hungary 527 3.4
Canada2, 3 526 2.1
Sweden 522 3.5
Lithuania1 519 lower 2.8
New Zealand2 513 lower 3.1
Australia 512 lower 2.7
Norway (9)4 509 lower 2.8
Israel5 507 lower 3.9
Italy1 499 lower 2.4
Turkey 493 lower 4.0
Malta 481 lower 1.6
United Arab Emirates 477 lower 2.3
Malaysia 471 lower 4.1
Bahrain 466 lower 2.2
Qatar 457 lower 3.0
Iran, Islamic Rep. of 456 lower 4.0
Thailand 456 lower 4.2
Oman 455 lower 2.7
Chile 454 lower 3.1
Georgia1, 3 443 lower 3.1
Jordan 426 lower 3.3
Kuwait 411 lower 5.2
Lebanon 398 lower 5.3
Saudi Arabia 396 lower 4.5
Morocco 393 lower 2.5
Egypt 371 lower 4.3
Benchmarking participants
Quebec-CAN6 530 4.4
Dubai-UAE 525 2.0
Ontario-CAN 524 2.5
Florida-USA3 508 lower 6.0
Abu Dhabi-UAE 454 lower 5.6
Buenos Aires-ARG2 386 lower 4.2