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Advanced Mathematics at the End of High School: Subscale Scores

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Table 48. Average advanced mathematics cognitive domain scores of TIMSS Advanced students, by education system: 2015
Education system Advanced mathematics coverage index1 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.

† 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 average score in reasoning. 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 0.0 500 higher 0.0 500 higher 0.0
Russian Federation (intensive courses)2 1.9 538 higher 8.8 544 higher 8.1 541 higher 7.2
Lebanon3 3.9 543 higher 4.5 529 higher 3.8 527 higher 3.9
Portugal4 28.5 479 3.0 476 2.9 488 3.5
United States3 11.4 488 5.7 480 5.5 484 5.3
Russian Federation 10.1 478 6.7 491 6.1 484 5.3
Norway 10.6 445 lower 4.1 459 lower 5.1 469 lower 4.4
France 21.5 475 lower 2.7 449 lower 3.4 462 lower 3.1
Sweden 14.1 405 lower 4.7 434 lower 3.6 447 lower 3.9
Slovenia 34.4 466 lower 3.5 465 lower 4.0 442 lower 4.0
Italy 24.5 423 lower 5.5 425 lower 5.4 411 lower 5.9