Student Achievement

The purpose of this exhibit is to provide information about relative progress across grades, as the cohort of students assessed at the fourth grade in 2007 moved to the eighth grade four years later in 2011, and then to TIMSS Advanced in 2015. Follow the darker green arrows pointing diagonally downward to compare relative performance among the TIMSS Advanced countries at the fourth grade in 2007 (upper left panel) to relative performance at the eighth grade in 2011 (middle panel), and then to relative performance in TIMSS Advanced in the final year of secondary school (lower right panel).

Because the TIMSS assessments at the fourth and eighth grades are conducted on a four year cycle, the cohort of students assessed in math at the fourth grade in 2007 had reached the eighth grade by 2011, and thus was assessed at the eighth grade in 2011. Similarly, for a number of TIMSS Advanced countries—France, Lebanon, Portugal, Sweden, and the United States—this cohort of students was in the 12 th grade by 2015 and some of those students were assessed as part of TIMSS Advanced. The final year of secondary school is the 11th grade in the Russian Federation and the 13th grade in Italy, Norway, and Slovenia.