How do the results of PISA compare with the results in TIMSS?
• The TIMSS 2007 results at grade 8, the grade closest to the age of PISA students, showed U.S. average scores higher than the TIMSS scale average in both mathematics and science. In PISA 2006, the average scores of U.S. 15-year-old students were below the OECD averagethe average score of students in the 30 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Such differences are difficult to compare because, while both TIMSS and PISA measure the mathematics and science achievement of students, they do so for different sets of students, in different ways, and in different sets of countries. TIMSS focuses on the mathematics and science achievement of students in the fourth and eighth grades, and selects whole classrooms of students for this purpose. In contrast, PISA aims to assess the mathematics and science literacy of students near the end of their compulsory schooling, at age 15. These students range across several grades in most countries. TIMSS draws its content
