OECD (2000)

Mathematics Achievement of Students in the 4th and 8th Grades
below the OECD average; England, Greece, New Zealand and Norway, with
scores around 365; and Iceland and Portugal, with scores of 338 and 340
(Table F1.1).
One way to gauge the magnitude of the observed differences between
countries at the primary level is to compare them with the typical difference in
achievement between the 3rd and 4th grades, an average difference of
63 points in mathematics in the OECD countries tested. The observed differences
in scores between some countries are bigger than the average difference
between the 3rd and 4th grades, which suggests that variation between countries
in mathematics achievement is of considerable educational and practical
importance.
Differences in
achievement between
the 4th and 8th grades
are substantial when
compared to the average
gap between children
one year apart in age.
Mean performance of countries in 8th grade
Japan and Korea maintain their high rankings at the 8th grade. The difference
in mathematics achievement between Japan and Korea on the one hand,
and the OECD average on the other exceeds more than twice the typical difference
in achievement between students in the 7th and 8th grades in OECD
countries (32 scale points). High achievement in mathematics is shown also by
students in the Flemish Community of Belgium and the Czech Republic,
whereas students in Portugal lag behind (Table F1.1). The average mathematics
achievement score in most OECD countries is between 480 and 550 points
on a scale that has an overall mean of 524 points and a standard deviation of
somewhat less than 100 points.
Japan and Korea
maintain their high
standing at the
8th grade.
An examination of relative national performance leads to the more pertinent
question of what influences student performance. What factors explain
the patterns of performance in different countries, and are they amenable to
policy intervention Knowledge of the factors that influence successful performance
will enable policy-makers to make informed choices about priorities.
Success may, for example, be associated with student attitudes and perceptions,
with teaching methods or with curricular emphases.
Knowing what
influences successful
student performance
enables policy-makers
to make informed
choices about priorities.
There seems to be neither a strong nor a consistent relationship between
the volume of resources invested nationally (Indicator B1) and student outcomes.
This suggests that international variation cannot be explained merely
in terms of financial or staff resources and that the search for improvement in
school performance must extend to factors that lie beyond material inputs.
Growth in mathematics achievement between the 4th and 8th grades
Does the level of achievement in lower grades allow achievement later in
school to be predicted Chart F1.1 suggests that many countries maintain a
similar ranking in mathematics between the 4th and the 8th grade. This may be
an indication both of the importance of success in early school years and of the
fact that similar factors of student success may operate at both grades.
These comparisons are based on a synthetic cohort and do not show the
progress of a specific group of students; rather, they show the difference in
achievement between two different groups of students at the same point in
International variation
in mathematics and
science achievement
cannot be explained
in terms of financial
or staff resources alone.
Most countries which
perform well in
mathematics at the
4th grade also do so at
the 8th grade, which
underlines the
importance of early
success.
F 1
© OECD 2000
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