Massachusetts’ fourth and eighth graders outscored the nation, and most of their international peers, in math and science on the world’s largest study of student performance in those subjects. According to the results of the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Massachusetts 4th graders ranked second worldwide in science achievement and tied for third in mathematics; the state’s 8th graders tied for first in science and ranked sixth in mathematics.
TIMSS is an international math and science assessment administered every four years to a sampling of 4th and 8th grade students in participating nations around the world. The test was administered in April and May 2007 to 3,600 students attending 95 randomly selected schools in Massachusetts.
Other findings include:
- Massachusetts 8th graders made significant gains in math and science performance on TIMSS between 1999 and 2007. In math, the state’s 8th graders improved by 34 points, from 513 in 1999 to 547 in 2007. In science, 8th graders scored 23 points higher in 2007 (556) than in 1999 (533). There are no trend results for the state’s 4th graders.
- In grade 8 science, 20% of Massachusetts students met the Advanced Benchmark, behind Singapore (32%) and Chinese Taipei (25%). In math, 16% of the state’s 8th graders scored Advanced, behind Chinese Taipei (45%), the Republic of Korea (40%), Singapore (40%), Hong Kong SAR (31%), and Japan (26%).
- Boys outscored girls in Massachusetts on three of the four tests. At grade 4, boys outscored girls in math (578 to 567) and science (576 to 566). At grade 8, boys outscored girls in science (561 to 551), but the difference was not statistically significant in math (550 for boys, 544 for girls).
TIMSS was developed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) in Amsterdam to measure trends in students’ math and science performance worldwide. In all, 59 countries and 425,000 students participated in the 2007 TIMSS administration. Massachusetts and Minnesota were the only two states to opt to participate as “nations.”
Additional information on TIMSS is available online at the National Center for Education Statistics’ website (nces.ed.gov/timss/) and the TIMSS and PIRLS International Study Center’s website at timss.bc.edu/.
