Exhibit 2.9 shows the changes in percentages of students reaching the benchmarks for countries that have comparable data from previous assessments. Most recently, there were about as many decreases as increases at each level across the distribution. Of the 44 countries participating in both 2015 and 2019, 5 increased and 5 decreased at the Advanced International Benchmark, 8 increased and 7 decreased at the High Benchmark, 7 increased and 9 decreased at the Intermediate Benchmark, and 9 increased and 6 decreased at the Low Benchmark.

The recent trends from 2015 differ from previous assessments, when the countries made progress at all but the Advanced Benchmark. The pattern across the benchmarks between 2007 and 2019 shows decreases at the Advanced Benchmark but increases at the other three levels. Of the 21 countries that also participated in TIMSS 2007, 4 increased and 8 decreased at the Advanced International Benchmark, 7 increased and 4 decreased at the High Benchmark, 9 increased and 3 decreased at the Intermediate Benchmark, and 6 increased and only 1 decreased at the Low Benchmark. For the 16 countries with data for 1995 and 2019, although the Advanced International Benchmark had 7 increases and 5 decreases, there were substantial gains at the other three levels—High International Benchmark with 9 increases and 2 decreases, Intermediate International Benchmark with 11 increases and 2 decreases, and Low International Benchmark with 10 increases and 1 decrease.