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Science for Grades 4 and 8: Subscale Scores

Cognitive Subscales

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Table 28. Average science cognitive domain scores of 8th-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 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 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
Singapore1 594 higher 3.4 600 higher 3.4 595 higher 3.2
Japan 567 higher 2.2 575 higher 1.9 570 higher 2.1
Korea, Republic of 555 higher 2.9 552 higher 2.2 560 higher 2.8
Chinese Taipei-CHN 589 higher 2.3 565 higher 2.0 560 higher 2.0
Slovenia 558 higher 2.6 547 higher 2.3 550 higher 2.3
Hong Kong-CHN 547 higher 3.7 541 4.3 550 higher 4.4
England-GBR 523 4.1 538 3.9 545 higher 4.0
Russian Federation 558 higher 5.2 538 4.6 538 higher 3.9
Canada2, 3 518 lower 2.3 526 2.1 533 2.2
Ireland 523 3.2 533 3.0 532 3.0
Kazakhstan 529 5.8 535 4.5 528 4.7
United States2 532 3.4 531 2.8 526 2.8
Sweden 519 lower 3.2 518 lower 3.5 526 4.0
Lithuania1 513 lower 3.1 517 lower 3.4 525 3.2
Hungary 525 3.5 528 3.4 524 3.8
New Zealand2 503 lower 3.2 513 lower 3.5 520 3.3
Norway (9)4 500 lower 3.1 507 lower 2.9 518 lower 3.0
Australia 510 lower 2.7 512 lower 2.9 513 lower 2.8
Israel5 503 lower 4.3 504 lower 3.8 511 lower 4.4
Turkey 489 lower 4.5 492 lower 3.9 495 lower 4.2
Italy1 505 lower 2.6 496 lower 2.4 493 lower 2.8
Malta 468 lower 2.1 489 lower 1.8 479 lower 1.7
United Arab Emirates 478 lower 2.5 478 lower 2.4 473 lower 2.4
Malaysia 466 lower 5.1 476 lower 4.2 467 lower 3.9
Bahrain 462 lower 2.5 464 lower 2.4 466 lower 2.8
Oman 455 lower 2.9 454 lower 2.9 454 lower 2.4
Qatar 448 lower 3.6 460 lower 3.6 454 lower 3.2
Iran, Islamic Republic of 455 lower 4.8 457 lower 4.0 454 lower 4.0
Chile 466 lower 3.2 446 lower 3.0 448 lower 3.6
Thailand 469 lower 4.3 450 lower 4.7 447 lower 4.0
Georgia1, 3 452 lower 3.3 442 lower 3.1 432 lower 3.5
Jordan 430 lower 3.3 425 lower 3.3 419 lower 3.6
Saudi Arabia 395 lower 5.0 383 lower 4.9 405 lower 4.7
Kuwait 415 lower 5.2 406 lower 5.2 400 lower 5.8
Morocco 395 lower 2.3 391 lower 2.8 385 lower 2.6
Lebanon 403 lower 5.9 398 lower 5.3 381 lower 6.3
Egypt 372 lower 5.2 371 lower 4.4 359 lower 4.8
Benchmarking participants
Quebec-CAN6 527 5.1 524 4.6 535 4.5
Ontario-CAN 514 lower 2.6 525 2.4 532 2.6
Dubai-UAE 527 2.5 525 2.2 521 2.0
Florida-USA3 511 lower 6.9 508 lower 5.8 506 lower 6.4
Abu Dhabi-UAE 453 lower 6.1 457 lower 5.9 454 lower 5.7
Buenos Aires-ARG2 397 lower 4.8 380 lower 4.5 373 lower 4.8