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Science for Grades 4 and 8: Subscale Scores

Content Subscales

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TIMSS 2015 Results
Table 26. Average science content domain scores of 8th-grade students, by education system: 2015
Education system Content domain
Biology Chemistry Physics Earth Science
Average score s.e. 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 National Target Population does not include all of the International Target Population.

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

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

6 Did not satisfy guidelines for sample participation rates.

NOTE: Education systems are ordered by 2015 average score in biology. 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 0.0 500 lower 0.0
Singapore1 609 higher 3.5 593 higher 3.6 608 higher 3.1 565 higher 3.6
Japan 570 higher 2.9 570 higher 2.4 570 higher 2.3 574 higher 2.0
Chinese Taipei-CHN 565 higher 2.2 579 higher 2.7 560 higher 3.0 581 higher 2.7
Korea, Republic of 554 higher 2.2 550 higher 2.5 564 higher 2.8 554 higher 2.7
Hong Kong-CHN 549 4.7 536 higher 4.1 540 higher 4.1 558 higher 4.3
Slovenia 548 higher 2.8 552 higher 2.6 545 higher 2.9 564 higher 2.9
England-GBR 542 4.0 529 4.5 535 higher 3.9 536 4.0
United States2 540 2.9 519 3.2 516 2.9 535 3.1
Russian Federation 539 4.4 558 higher 4.9 548 higher 4.2 532 4.7
Canada2, 3 534 2.4 512 2.2 521 2.2 532 2.3
Ireland 534 2.9 517 3.6 525 higher 3.2 542 3.1
Australia 522 lower 2.8 493 lower 3.3 505 lower 2.7 522 lower 2.9
Lithuania1 521 lower 3.1 517 3.2 513 3.6 518 lower 3.3
Hungary 521 lower 3.3 534 higher 3.6 531 higher 4.0 521 lower 3.9
Kazakhstan 520 lower 4.6 554 higher 5.2 543 higher 5.0 508 lower 5.4
Sweden 520 lower 3.6 512 3.6 524 3.7 532 4.5
New Zealand2 520 lower 3.5 498 lower 3.5 508 3.2 517 lower 3.6
Israel4 504 lower 4.2 516 4.6 508 4.0 493 lower 4.0
Norway (9)5 502 lower 2.6 503 lower 2.9 512 3.1 523 lower 3.3
Italy1 496 lower 2.6 487 lower 2.4 496 lower 2.5 514 lower 2.8
Turkey 491 lower 4.1 493 lower 4.7 506 lower 4.2 477 lower 3.9
United Arab Emirates 475 lower 2.4 481 lower 3.2 475 lower 2.5 475 lower 2.4
Malta 473 lower 2.7 481 lower 2.1 490 lower 1.8 481 lower 2.5
Bahrain 469 lower 2.6 462 lower 2.8 461 lower 2.6 461 lower 3.5
Malaysia 466 lower 4.4 473 lower 4.0 480 lower 3.9 460 lower 4.5
Thailand 466 lower 4.1 445 lower 4.9 437 lower 4.6 459 lower 4.5
Chile 459 lower 3.6 438 lower 3.6 439 lower 3.8 464 lower 3.2
Qatar 454 lower 3.0 455 lower 3.6 459 lower 3.4 446 lower 3.7
Oman 454 lower 2.7 452 lower 2.7 449 lower 3.0 456 lower 2.4
Iran, Islamic Republic of 448 lower 3.8 458 lower 4.6 475 lower 4.4 439 lower 4.5
Georgia1, 3 447 lower 3.1 456 lower 3.7 429 lower 4.6 420 lower 3.6
Jordan 420 lower 3.9 438 lower 3.8 424 lower 3.6 416 lower 3.0
Kuwait 402 lower 5.9 413 lower 5.7 411 lower 5.1 408 lower 5.1
Saudi Arabia 397 lower 5.1 377 lower 5.0 385 lower 5.3 403 lower 4.3
Morocco 380 lower 2.5 400 lower 3.0 395 lower 2.9 395 lower 2.2
Lebanon 366 lower 6.2 438 lower 6.2 412 lower 6.6 365 lower 6.4
Egypt 348 lower 5.0 395 lower 5.0 378 lower 4.7 351 lower 4.6
Benchmarking participants
Ontario-CAN 537 2.8 504 lower 2.7 522 3.0 526 3.2
Quebec-CAN6 527 lower 4.3 531 higher 4.6 520 4.7 542 4.2
Dubai-UAE 524 lower 2.4 529 higher 2.5 525 higher 2.4 518 lower 2.3
Florida-USA3 518 lower 5.8 498 lower 6.9 498 lower 5.8 505 lower 6.7
Abu Dhabi-UAE 452 lower 6.1 460 lower 6.7 454 lower 5.3 453 lower 5.8
Buenos Aires-ARG2 391 lower 4.7 354 lower 5.3 381 lower 5.1 388 lower 5.5
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