OECD (2000)

F1
Mathematics Achievement of Students in the 4th and 8th Grades
time. Some of the differences observed could be caused by other factors, such
as changes in curricular emphases and teaching methods at different grades.
Some of the countries
with a comparatively
low performance at the
4th grade make up for
some of the difference
by the 8th grade…
… while other countries
have good 4th-grade
results but fall behind
by the 8th grade.
Iceland, New Zealand and Norway, whose 4th-grade students perform
particularly poorly in mathematics, are among the countries with the highest
gains over the four years. There are also countries with high performance in
4th-grade mathematics which succeed in extending their advantage through
high gains over the four years – Japan and Korea in particular.
At the other end of the spectrum are countries, such as Ireland and the
United States, which perform well at the 4th grade but which fall behind by the
8th grade. Some of the differences between countries may be explained by differences
in curricular emphases at the respective grades.
DEFINITIONS
The achievement scores are based on tests administered as part of the
Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) that was undertaken
by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement (IEA) during the school year 1994/95. The target populations
studied in this indicator refer to students in the higher of the two grades in
which most 9- and 13-year-olds are enrolled. Conventionally, these grades are
referred to as the “4th” and “8th” grades, since in most countries they refer to
the fourth and eighth years of formal schooling. It should be noted that years
of formal schooling vary from country to country and that chronological age
does not necessarily mean that students have had the same amount of formal
schooling. For example, students in Denmark, Norway and Sweden have had
one year less (i.e. seven years) of formal schooling than most of their counterparts
in the 8th grade, while students in England, Scotland and New Zealand
have had one year more (i.e. nine years) of formal schooling (see Table F.1.1).
Countries in Table F1.1 and Chart 1.1 marked with (3) or (4) met the IEA/TIMSS
sampling standards only partially, while those marked with (1) or (2) did not
meet the IEA/TIMSS sampling standards. Annex 3 in the 1997 edition of Education
at a Glance gives further details.
For Table F1.1 and Chart 1.1, 4th-grade average achievement scores and
their standard errors (with the exception of those used for the significance
tests at the 4th grade) are adjusted for each country to fit the 8th-grade
achievement scale. Fifteen of the items in mathematics (15 per cent) were
included in the tests for both Population 1 (9-year-olds in grades 3 and 4) and
Population 2 (13-year-olds in grades 7 and 8). The difference in performance in
these items between the populations was used to estimate the change between
the 4th and the 8th grade. The country means for the 4th grade transformed to
the 8th-grade scale are shown in Table F1.1. The tests for Chart F1.1 on whether
the 4th-grade country means are significantly different from the OECD mean are
based on standard errors, which are not adjusted for the linkage between 4th
and 8th grades.
The data are subject to sampling error, which sets a lower limit on the size of
observed differences that can be considered statistically significant. The statistical
tests used to compare country means were conducted using the Bonferroni adjustment
for multiple comparisons at the 5 per cent significance level.
© OECD 2000
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