U.S. Student Performance in 2015 TIMSS Advanced Mathematics and Physics

A new statistical analysis report entitled “U.S. Performance on the 2015 TIMSS Advanced Mathematics and Physics Assessments: A Closer Look” provides in-depth analyses that (1) examine the demographics and school characteristics of the small subset of U.S. 12^th-graders taking the advanced mathematics and physics coursework that made them eligible for the study; (2) describe the extent to which the topics assessed in the study were covered in the curricula of these advanced courses; (3) provide detailed performance data within content domains for student subgroups and overall; and (4) illustrate student performance with example items.

Key findings include:

• The students taking the advanced mathematics assessment represented 12.5 percent of U.S. 12^th-graders overall, and the students taking the physics assessment represented 5.3 percent.
• U.S. students’ opportunity to learn the advanced mathematics and physics content assessed in TIMSS Advanced varied by the highest-level course taken and by subject. Generally, coverage tended to be greater for advanced mathematics topics than for physics topics.
• U.S. student performance varied depending on the specific courses taken. The average scores of students taking some of the higher level courses were higher than the overall U.S. averages and the international scale centerpoints for both subjects.
• There were differences in average scores between subgroups of students. In both subjects, on average, U.S. males outperformed females, Asian students outperformed White students, and White students outperformed Black and Hispanic students. In advanced mathematics, U.S. students in suburban schools outperformed students in rural schools on average.
• U.S. students demonstrated some common misconceptions and errors on the TIMSS Advanced mathematics and physics items, including those assessing topics that had a high level of coverage across the U.S. TIMSS Advanced-eligible courses and where U.S. students performed relatively well on average.
This report draws on data from TIMSS Advanced 2015, which is described on the NCES website. Users can also create customized tables and charts from TIMSS Advanced using the International Data Explorer.