Highlights from TIMSS 2019

East Asian countries—Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong SAR—were the top performers. In mathematics, led by Singapore, the five East Asian countries outperformed the other TIMSS countries by substantial margins in fourth and eighth grades. In science at both grades, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Korea, and Japan also performed well and were joined by the Russian Federation and Finland.

Across countries, only small percentages of students reached the Advanced International Benchmarks. However, top-performing countries had high percentages reaching the advanced level. On a positive note, most TIMSS countries are educating high percentages of their students to at least the Low International Benchmarks.

TIMSS trends show more improvements than declines in average achievement in both the long term—since 1995 and 2007—and the short term—since 2015. The exception was science at the fourth grade where there were as many declines as improvements in the short term.

Nearly half the countries had gender equity in average mathematics and science achievement. However, in mathematics, boys outperformed girls in nearly half the countries at the fourth grade. In science, girls outperformed boys in 18 countries at the fourth grade and 15 countries at the eighth grade.

Students from homes with more educational resources, such as books, an internet connection, and parents with higher levels of education, had higher average achievement in mathematics and science at both grades.

TIMSS shows the importance of early educational activities for later progress in primary school. Fourth grade students had higher achievement, on average, when their parents had engaged them in literacy and numeracy activities at an early age in the home, when the students had attended preprimary education, or when they had literacy and numeracy skills upon entering primary school.

Students attending schools with fewer resource shortages had higher average achievement in mathematics and science at both grades.

More than half the students at both grades attended schools with a high or very high emphasis on academic success. Especially at the eighth grade, students attending schools with a higher emphasis had higher average achievement in mathematics and science. Schools emphasizing academic success have well prepared and highly skilled teachers, supportive parents with expectations for student success, and students who desire to do well and can meet the schools' academic goals.

In both grades, students with a higher sense of school belonging had higher average mathematics and science achievement. However, the percentage of students reporting a high sense of school belonging was 58 percent across the 58 countries at fourth grade and only 37 percent across the 39 countries at eighth grade.

Most fourth and eighth grade students attended schools with well-disciplined and safe environments. Higher average achievement in mathematics and science was associated with attending schools with fewer school discipline problems and safer and more orderly school environments.

TIMSS asked students about how often they experienced various bullying behaviors by other students, including online cyberbullying, with more extreme behaviors included at the eighth grade. Higher average achievement was associated with students experiencing little or no bullying. At both grades, most students were never or almost never bullied, but the 6-8 percent of students that reported being bullied weekly had considerably lower average achievement.

Teachers reported a sizable gap between their professional development needs and their recent professional development opportunities when asked about integrating technology into instruction and improving students' critical thinking skills. Although in general less than half the students had teachers who reported participating in such professional development, about 70 percent had teachers who reported needing future professional development in these areas.

In the fourth and eighth grades, liking learning mathematics and feeling confident in mathematics were strongly associated with higher average achievement. Although students generally had positive attitudes, the percentage who do not like learning mathematics was higher in eighth grade than fourth grade (41% compared to 20%). Similarly, students who feel confident in mathematics have higher average achievement than those who do not, but again, the percentage not confident was higher in eighth grade than fourth grade (44% compared to 23%). However, most eighth grade students (84%) reported valuing mathematics at least somewhat.

In the fourth and eighth grades, liking learning science and feeling confident in science were strongly associated with higher average achievement. However, there was a higher percentage of students with positive attitudes in the fourth grade (52% very much like science) compared to the eighth grade (35%). The percentage very confident in science also was higher at the fourth grade than the eighth grade (38% compared to 23%). Moreover, 22 percent of eighth grade students reported that they do not value science.

Students were asked about the clarity of their teachers' instruction in mathematics and science. For example, students were asked whether they know what their teacher expects them to do, if their teacher is easy to understand, has clear answers to their questions, is good at explaining mathematics or science, or does a variety of things to help the students learn. As anticipated, higher student achievement was associated with greater clarity of instruction in both subjects and grades. About three-quarters of fourth grade students reported their teachers had high instructional clarity, but less than half the eighth grade students did so.