The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international comparative study that measures trends in mathematics and science achievement at the 4th and 8th grades every 4 years. TIMSS is designed to align broadly with mathematics and science curricula in the participating education systems and, therefore, to reflect students’ school-based learning. The United States has participated in every administration of TIMSS since its inception in 1995, and the study provides valuable information on how U.S. students compare to students around the world.
In 2019, a total of 64 education systems participated in TIMSS at the 4th grade, while 46 systems participated at the 8th grade. Most of these education systems are member countries of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), the group that sponsors TIMSS internationally; a small number at each grade are nonmember subnational entities that have joined TIMSS as “benchmarking participants.” Both groups are included in the discussion of results and counts of education systems.
As the 2019 TIMSS results show, the United States had higher average scores than most participating countries in both mathematics and science at both the 4th and 8th grades. However, in 2019, the United States had relatively large score gaps between the top- and bottom-performing students in both TIMSS subjects and grades. In 8th-grade mathematics, only 1 of the 45 other education systems (Turkey) had a larger score gap between the top-performing (90th percentile) and bottom-performing (10th percentile) students than the United States. Moreover, except in grade 4 science, the U.S. score gaps increased from most prior administrations of TIMSS, related in part to drops in the 2019 performance of the bottom performers from the prior two administrations. Gender differences in the United States in 2019 were not consistent, and while boys outperformed girls at the 4th grade in both mathematics and science, there were no gender differences at the 8th grade in either subject.
Looking at changes over time in mathematics at both grades 4 and 8, U.S. average scores have increased over the long term—with higher average scores in 2019 than in 1995—but show no significant changes between 2015 and 2019. In science, U.S. average scores show no significant changes over the long term (from 1995 to 2019) or over the short term (from 2015 to 2019) at the 8th grade. However, at the 4th grade, the U.S. average score in science in 2019 has decreased since the last administration in 2015. The lack of change in 8th-graders’ average scores over the recent time period is related to the simultaneously rising scores of top performers and declining scores of bottom performers. read less
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