TIMSS & Culture
Crosslinking the TIMSS, IAEP, NAEP, and SAT Scores of 45 Countries
 | Only Kuwait, Columbia, South Africa, Jordan, Brazil, and Mozambique score lower than the US. |
| Only Columbia, South Africa, Jordan, Brazil, and Mozambique score lower than US teachers. |
| Worldwide, TIMSS Scores increase 7 points for each 1% increase in the percent of teachers who are men. |
Removing Singapore considerably improves correlation
Even if SAT Math scores had not declined as they did in the last 3-4 decades, US education quality would still not have been all that great. Had scores just remained flat with 1960 [read: had the percent of teachers who are males not decreased from 31.3% to 25.6%], we would rank equally to Portugal, Austria, and Spain in geometry scores, who themselves are at the bottom of the world scale. That would still have put us more than 87 points lower than countries like Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore, who have 2-3 times the percentage of male teachers as us. Increasing US education quality to a level equivalent to Switzerland requires a 22% increase in the percent of US teachers who are males, from 25.6% to 47.6%. Nothing, nothing else will make a bit of difference to education quality unless and until this happens. Background data.
Non-feminized Nations in Blue, Feminized Nations in Red
| Country or State | 12th Grade TIMSS Geometry Score | Education Cost As % of GDP (1) | % Male HS Teachers (1) | 12th Grade SAT Math 1 TIMSS pt = 1.5 SAT Math Points |
13 y.o. IAEP Math | 8th Grade NAEP/IAEP Crosslink Study | NAEP Scores |
| China (1) | 647 | 2.4 | 70 | 561 | |||
| Singapore (1) | (643) | 3.4 | 48 | ||||
| Taiwan (2) | (610) | 3.5 | 69 | 545 | 296.7 | ||
| Korea (1) (3) | (607) | 3.9 | 68 | 542 | 294.1 | ||
| Japan (1) | (605) | 4.9 | 71 | ||||
| Hong Kong (1) | (588) | 51 | |||||
| Belgium (1) | (565) | 5.6 | 60 | ||||
| Russia | 548 | 60 | 533 | 287.6 | |||
| Switzerland | 547 | 5.6 | 87 | 539 | 287.5 | ||
| Slovak Republic (1) | (547) | 55 | |||||
| France | 544 | 6.1 | 43 | (664) (7) | 519 | 278.1 | |
| Netherlands (1) | 541 | 7.3 | 72 | ||||
| Bulgaria (1) | 540 | 6.9 | 47 | ||||
| Hungary (1) | 537 | 5.4 | 60 | 529 | 284.8 | ||
| Ireland (1) | 527 | 6.9 | 50 | 509 | 271.4 | ||
| Denmark | 527 | 55 | |||||
| Israel (1) | 522 | 5.8 | 38 | 517 | 276.8 | ||
| Thailand (1) | 522 | 3.3 | 50 | ||||
| Cyprus | 517 | 55 | |||||
| Lithuania | 515 | 45 | |||||
| New Zealand (1) | 508 | 56 | |||||
| England (1) | 506 | 5.0 | 55 | 511 | |||
| Norway (1) | (503) | 49 | |||||
| Canada | 499 | 7.3 | 58 | 513 | 274 | ||
| Greece | 498 | 3.4 | 47 | ||||
| Scotland (1) | 498 | 42 | 511 | 272.4 | |||
| Australia | 496 | 5.5 | 52 | ||||
| Czech Republic | 494 | 5.0 | 66 | ||||
| Latvia (1) | 493 | 40 | |||||
| Sweden | 492 | 6.7 | 55 | ||||
| Germany | 487 | 5.9 | 59 | ||||
| Iceland (1) | 487 | 3.7 | 71 | ||||
| Romania (1) | 482 | 52 | |||||
| Italy | 480 | 5.1 | 39 | 517 | 276.3 | ||
| Slovenia | 476 | 38 | 504 | 267.3 | |||
| US 1960 (before 30 SAT-M point drop) | 470 | ||||||
| Spain (5) | (470) | 4.5 | 53 | 495 | 261.9 | ||
| North Dakota (6) | (469) | 567 | 281.1 | 229 | |||
| Austria | 462 | 5.7 | 45 | ||||
| Portugal (1) | 454 | 5.3 | 41 | 483 | |||
| US Males | 440 | 503 | |||||
| Iran (1) | 428 | 29 | |||||
| US 1995 Average | 424 | 6.9 | 25 | 480 | 494 | 261.8 | 218 |
| US Females | 408 | 456 | |||||
| California | 395 | 456 | 256.3 | 207 | |||
| Kuwait (1) | 392 | ||||||
| US Teachers (est) | 388 | 426 | |||||
| Colombia (1) | 385 | ||||||
| North Carolina | 376 | 428 | 250.4 | 211 | |||
| South Africa (1) | 354 | ||||||
| Jordan | 347 | 458 | 236.1 | ||||
| Brazil | 317 | 444 | |||||
| District of Columbia | 300 | 437 | 231.4 | 191 | |||
| Mozambique | 290 | 427 | |||||
| (1) United Nations Statistical Yearbook, 1997, 37th Issue, Page 116 | |||||||
(1)--Assumption: 12th grade scores are equal to 8th grade scores, since no other data was available. These scores could be 70 points higher or lower.
(2)Taiwan--13 y.o. score 3 points higher than Korean 13 y.o. on IAEP.
(3) Korea--Gap in IAEP from 9 y.o. to 13 y.o. is 72 points, Korea's 12th graders probably score much higher than the TIMSS score of 607 for their 8th graders.
(4) Japan--8th graders score 2 points lower than Korea on TIMSS.
(5) Spain--IAEP Score for 13 y.o. is 6 points lower than Slovenia, whose 12th graders scored 476 TIMSS points.
(6) North Dakota--IAEP/NAEP Cross linking study shows 9 y.o. score in same range as countries who score 545 on TIMSS. The 76 point drop in TIMSS scores from US 8th to 12th graders is subtracted from North Dakota's score.
(7) France -- Assumption: a linear relationship of one TIMSS point to 2 SAT points as the difference between the US and North Dakota is 91 SAT points and 45 TIMSS points.
(1) China -- crosslinked to 561 IAEP Math points.