Eighth graders in the US improved in both math and science, according to the recently released 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) rankings, but US fourth graders scored virtually the same as they did in 1995 and lost ground to several other countries. The scores show that US students rank above the international average of nations participating in the testing, but are only in the middle of the rankings among what NSF describes as “those nations that are most advanced or … that have taken part in TIMSS consistently since the study’s first assessment in 1995.”
Students from Singapore outperformed students from all other countries in both math and science at both grade levels. Different numbers of countries participated in different categories in the 2003 study, but overall more than 360 000 students from 46 countries were involved. The TIMSS testing was conducted by the International...
