How Does Achievement Differ Across Mathematics Content Areas?
Exhibit
3.1 presents average achievement in each of the five mathematics
content areas for the Benchmarking states, districts, and consortia.
The Benchmarking jurisdictions as well as selected reference countries
are displayed in decreasing order of achievement for each content
area, and symbols indicate whether performance is statistically significantly
above or below the international average for all of the countries
that participated in TIMSS 1999. To allow comparison of the relative
performance of each country in each content area, the international
average for each content area was scaled to be 487, the same as the
overall international average.
The six countries scoring highest in the overall mathematics assessment
– Singapore, Korea, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan, and Belgium
(Flemish) – were also the highest-scoring countries (though not
always in the same rank order) in each content area. Correspondingly,
the Naperville School District and the First in World Consortium were
the highest-scoring Benchmarking entities, performing significantly
above the international average, and generally about the same as Belgium
(Flemish), in each area.
In contrast to the consistent performance across content areas displayed
by the highest-performing entities, performance varied substantially
for some middle-performing entities, including the United States.
The United States performed significantly above the international
average in fractions and number sense; data representation, analysis,
and probability; and algebra. In contrast, however, it performed similarly
to the international average in measurement and geometry. The same
pattern occurred in several of the Benchmarking jurisdictions, including
the Project SMART Consortium, Texas, Indiana, Michigan, the Southwest
Pennsylvania Math and Science Collaborative, Massachusetts, Oregon,
and Guilford County. Montgomery County, the Michigan Invitational
Group, and the Academy School District performed above the international
average in measurement as well as in the three areas in which the
U.S. did relatively well, but like the U.S. performed only at the
international average in geometry. Although students in Pennsylvania
and Illinois performed above the international average in fractions
and number sense as well as in algebra, they performed similarly to
the international average in the other three areas.
Exhibits
B.1 through B.5
in Appendix B compare average achievement
among individual entities for each of the content areas. The exhibits
show whether or not the differences in average achievement between
pairs of participating entities are statistically significant.
