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Physics at the End of High School: Average Scores

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Table 55. Average physics scores of TIMSS Advanced students, by education system: 2015
Education system Physics 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 physics 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 physics 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 Did not satisfy guidelines for sample participation rates.

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
Lebanon2 3.9 410 lower 4.5
United States2 4.8 437 9.7
Russian Federation 4.9 508 higher 7.1
Portugal 5.1 467 higher 4.6
Norway 6.5 507 higher 4.6
Slovenia 7.6 531 higher 2.5
Sweden 14.3 455 5.9
Italy 18.2 374 lower 6.9
France 21.5 373 lower 4.0