The School Emphasis on Academic Success scale was administered to school principals of fourth and eighth grade students to collect information about the school’s expectations toward academic achievement. As described in Exhibit 7.1, students were categorized on the scale according to their principals’ responses to 11 items in the TIMSS 2019 School Questionnaire (see About the Scale). Consistent with previous TIMSS results, principals overall had positive attitudes about the degree of emphasis on academics in their schools, so the three regions were described as “very high,” “high,” and “medium.”

Exhibits 7.2 and 7.3 present the results for fourth grade students. The two exhibits include the same results for the School Emphasis on Academic Success scale, but Exhibit 7.2 presents results in relation to mathematics achievement and Exhibit 7.3 in relation to science achievement. Countries are ordered according to the percentage of students in the “very high emphasis” category. Across countries, on average, 7 percent of fourth grade students attended schools where the principal reported a “very high emphasis” on academic success, 55 percent attended schools with a “high emphasis,” and 37 percent attended schools with a “medium emphasis.” Attending schools with a higher emphasis on academic success was related to higher average mathematics achievement. Students in the “very high emphasis” category had the highest average mathematics achievement (515), followed by the “high emphasis” category (508), and then students in the “medium emphasis” category (486). The results were similar in relation to science, with average science achievement for students in the three categories at 508, 499, and 474 points, respectively.

Exhibits 7.4 and 7.5 present the School Emphasis on Academic Success results for eighth grade students in relation to their mathematics achievement and science achievement, respectively. On average, the principals of eighth grade students reported a similar degree of emphasis on academic success compared with fourth grade—8 percent of eighth grade students attended schools with a “very high emphasis” on academic success, 49 percent attended schools with a “high emphasis,” and 43 percent attended schools with a “medium emphasis.” At the eighth grade, there was a greater achievement gap between the “very high emphasis” and “medium emphasis” categories than at the fourth grade (69 points vs. 29 points in mathematics, and 68 points vs. 34 points in science).