Science Scores of 4th and 8th Grade Students by Country

How did U.S. fourth- and eigth-graders perform in science in 2003?

Fourth Grade:

• In 2003, fourth graders in the United States scored 536, on average, on the International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) science assessment, which was higher than the international average of 489. Of the 24 other participating countries, fourth graders in 16 countries demonstrated lower science scores, on average, that fourth graders in the United States, while students in 3 countries - Chinese Taipei, Japan, and Singapore - outperformed their peers in the United States.

• In comparison to the other 10 Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) member countries in science, U.S. fourth-grade students outperformed their peers in seven countries in 2003 (Australia, Belgium-Flemish, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and Scotland). Japanese fourth-grade students were the only group to outperform U.S. fourth-grade students among the participating OECD-member countries.

Eighth Grade:

• In science, U.S. eighth-graders exceeded the international average and outperformed their peers in 32 of the 44 other participating countries. U.S. eighth-graders performed lower, on average, than their peers in seven countries and were not found to perform measurably different from students in five countries.

• An examination of the performance of students from the other 12 OECD-member countries shows that U.S. eighth-grade students outperformed their peers in science in 5 of the countries (Belgium-Flemish, Italy, Norway, Scotland, and the Slovak Republic) and were outperformed by their peers in 3 of the countries (Hungary, Japan, and Korea).