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Science for Grades 4 and 8: Subscale Scores

Cognitive Subscales

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Table 27. Average science 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 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 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. Jordan did not participate in the science assessment at 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 0.0 500 lower 0.0 500 lower 0.0
Singapore1 574 higher 4.1 599 higher 4.0 605 higher 3.6
Japan 544 2.3 576 higher 1.8 594 higher 1.8
Korea, Republic of 582 higher 2.2 594 higher 1.9 594 higher 2.2
Russian Federation 569 higher 3.9 568 higher 3.3 561 higher 3.8
Chinese Taipei-CHN 557 higher 2.5 553 higher 2.6 558 higher 3.1
Hong Kong-CHN2 562 higher 3.0 554 3.3 552 higher 4.1
Finland 556 3.1 553 higher 2.4 552 higher 2.3
Kazakhstan 551 5.0 547 4.6 552 4.5
Sweden1 538 lower 3.8 540 3.4 542 3.8
Poland 544 2.5 554 higher 2.8 542 3.2
United States1, 2 548 2.5 546 2.2 542 2.7
England-GBR 533 lower 2.6 538 lower 2.7 539 2.7
Slovenia 541 lower 2.6 546 2.9 538 2.7
Lithuania1 524 lower 3.0 526 lower 2.4 538 3.0
Norway (5)3 533 lower 3.0 542 2.9 537 3.8
Croatia 534 lower 2.9 530 lower 2.2 536 2.4
Hungary 550 3.8 539 3.4 533 3.9
Germany 527 lower 2.8 529 lower 2.4 532 lower 2.3
Czech Republic 545 3.0 528 lower 2.1 529 lower 2.4
Australia 523 lower 3.3 522 lower 2.7 527 lower 3.0
Ireland 529 lower 2.5 530 lower 2.5 526 lower 2.9
Netherlands2 508 lower 2.4 519 lower 2.4 526 lower 2.9
Belgium (Flemish)-BEL2 498 lower 2.7 513 lower 2.5 526 lower 2.9
Denmark1, 2 524 lower 2.6 529 lower 2.4 526 lower 2.9
Canada1, 2, 4 523 lower 3.1 528 lower 2.6 524 lower 2.6
Serbia5 527 lower 3.9 522 lower 4.5 521 lower 3.9
Northern Ireland-GBR6 518 lower 2.9 519 lower 2.9 520 lower 2.6
Spain1 522 lower 3.3 514 lower 3.3 517 lower 2.6
New Zealand 504 lower 2.8 502 lower 3.1 514 lower 2.4
Italy1 521 lower 3.1 513 lower 3.1 511 lower 3.5
Slovak Republic 530 lower 3.3 517 lower 2.8 507 lower 3.4
Bulgaria 551 6.5 536 6.2 507 lower 6.4
Portugal1 507 lower 2.9 508 lower 1.9 506 lower 1.9
Cyprus 467 lower 3.2 489 lower 3.4 490 lower 3.6
Turkey 478 lower 3.0 486 lower 3.1 483 lower 3.3
France 482 lower 3.8 494 lower 3.1 481 lower 2.8
Chile 477 lower 3.2 476 lower 3.0 477 lower 2.5
Bahrain1 456 lower 2.5 462 lower 3.0 455 lower 3.0
United Arab Emirates 453 lower 3.3 452 lower 3.2 444 lower 3.0
Qatar 437 lower 4.5 430 lower 4.7 433 lower 4.4
Oman 422 lower 3.2 435 lower 2.9 431 lower 3.0
Georgia4 460 lower 4.2 449 lower 4.8 426 lower 4.0
Iran, Islamic Republic of 416 lower 4.1 417 lower 4.5 422 lower 4.9
Indonesia 397 lower 4.9 392 lower 5.3 390 lower 5.5
Saudi Arabia 394 lower 5.3 388 lower 4.7 365 lower 5.4
Morocco7 331 lower 5.6 357 lower 4.7 354 lower 4.7
Kuwait7 343 lower 6.4 324 lower 7.3 297 lower 8.1
Benchmarking participants
Florida-USA4 553 5.7 550 4.9 541 5.8
Ontario-CAN 527 lower 2.8 534 lower 2.5 529 lower 2.8
Quebec-CAN8 524 lower 4.3 525 lower 4.5 526 lower 4.6
Dubai-UAE 523 lower 2.3 517 lower 2.8 510 lower 2.9
Buenos Aires-ARG 417 lower 4.4 416 lower 4.6 416 lower 5.0
Abu Dhabi-UAE1 410 lower 6.6 417 lower 5.9 412 lower 5.3