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Advanced Mathematics at the End of High School: Average Scores

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Table 46. Average advanced mathematics scores of TIMSS Advanced students, by education system: 2015
Education system Advanced mathematics coverage index1 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.

† Not applicable.

1 The advanced mathematics coverage index is the percentage of the corresponding age cohort covered by students in their final year of secondary school who have taken or are taking advanced mathematics courses. The corresponding age cohort is determined for education systems individually. In the United States, the corresponding age cohort is considered 18-year-olds. For additional details, see the Technical Notes available at http://nces.ed.gov/timss/timss15technotes.asp.

2 Intensive courses are advanced mathematics courses that involve 6 or more hours per week. Results for students in these courses are reported separately from the results for other students from the Russian Federation taking courses that involve 4.5 hours per week.

3 Did not satisfy guidelines for sample participation rates.

4 Met guidelines for sample participation rates only after replacement schools were included.

NOTE: Education systems are ordered by the advanced mathematics coverage index. The TIMSS Advanced scale centerpoint is set at 500 points and represents the mean of the overall achievement distribution in 1995. The TIMSS Advanced 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.

SOURCE: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) Advanced, 2015.

TIMSS Advanced scale centerpoint 500 higher 0.0
Russian Federation (intensive courses)2 1.9 540 higher 7.8
Lebanon3 3.9 532 higher 3.1
Russian Federation 10.1 485 5.7
Norway 10.6 459 lower 4.6
United States3 11.4 485 5.2
Sweden 14.1 431 lower 4.0
France 21.5 463 lower 3.1
Italy 24.5 422 lower 5.3
Portugal4 28.5 482 2.5
Slovenia 34.4 460 lower 3.4