Question:
How does the achievement of American students compare to that of students in other countries?
Response:
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) carries out a variety of activities in order to provide statistical data for international comparisons of education.
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is carried out under the aegis of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and supported by NCES. TIMSS, conducted every 4 years, is an assessment of fourth- and eighth-graders in mathematics and science.
On the 2007 TIMSS mathematics assessment, U.S. fourth-graders' average score (529) was higher than the average mathematics scores of fourth-graders in 23 of the 35 other participating educational systems, lower than the scores in 8 educational systems, and not measurably different from the scores in the remaining 4 educational systems. (Average scale scores from the TIMSS assessment are based on a range of possible scores from 0 to 1,000.) Most participating educational systems represent countries; however, some represent subnational entities with separate educational systems, such as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. The educational systems that outperformed the United States in fourth-grade mathematics—namely, Chinese Taipei, England, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, the Russian Federation, and Singapore—all were located in Asia or Europe. In 2007, U.S. eighth-graders' average mathematics score (508) was higher than the average scores of eighth-graders in 37 of the 47 other participating educational systems, lower than the scores in 5 educational systems, and not measurably different from the scores in the remaining 5 educational systems. All of the educational systems that outperformed the United States in eighth-grade mathematics were in Asia (Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore).
On the 2007 TIMSS science assessment, U.S. fourth-graders' average score (539) was higher than the average science scores of fourth-graders in 25 of the 35 other participating educational systems, lower than the scores in 4 educational systems (all of them located in Asia), and not measurably different from the scores in the remaining 6 educational systems. The educational systems that outperformed the United States in fourth-grade science were Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, and Singapore. In 2007, U.S. eighth-graders' average science score (520) was higher than the average scores of eighth-graders in 35 of the 47 other educational systems, lower than the scores in 9 educational systems (all located in Asia or Europe), and not measurably different from the scores in the remaining 3 educational systems. The educational systems that outperformed the United States in eighth-grade science were in Chinese Taipei, the Czech Republic, England, Hungary, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Slovenia, and Singapore.The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a system of international assessments that measures 15-year-olds' performance in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy every 3 years. PISA also measures general, or cross-curricular, competencies such as learning strategies. While this study focuses on Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, data from some non-OECD countries are also provided.
On the 2009 PISA, U.S. 15-year-olds’ average score in reading literacy was 500, which was not measurably different from the OECD average of 493 (Possible scores on PISA assessments range from 0 to 1,000). The average reading literacy score in the United States was lower than the average score in 6 of the 33 other OECD countries, higher than the average score in 13 of the other OECD countries, and not measurably different from the average score in 14 of the OECD countries. Comparable reading literacy results were also reported for 31 non-OECD jurisdictions, 3 of which had higher average scores than the United States. In all participating OECD countries and non-OECD jurisdictions, girls outperformed boys in reading. The U.S. gender gap in reading (25 points) was smaller than the OECD average gap (39 points) and smaller than the gaps in 24 of the OECD countries and 21 of the non-OECD jurisdictions.
In mathematics literacy, U.S. 15-year-olds’ average score of 487 on the 2009 PISA was lower than the OECD average score of 496. The average mathematics literacy score in the United States was lower than the average score in 17 of the 33 other OECD countries, higher than the average score in 5 of the other OECD countries, and not measurably different from the average score in 11 of the OECD countries. In 6 of the 31 non-OECD jurisdictions, the mathematics literacy scores of 15-year-olds were higher than the average score in the United States. In science literacy, the average score of 15-year-olds in the United States was not measurably different from the OECD average score. The U.S. average science literacy score was lower than the average score in 12 of the 33 other OECD countries, higher than the average score in 9 of the other OECD countries, and not measurably different from the average score in 12 of the OECD countries. In 6 of the 31 non-OECD jurisdictions, the science literacy scores of 15-year-olds were higher than the average score in the United States.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2011). Digest of Education Statistics, 2010 (NCES 2011-015), Chapter 6 .
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