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New Zealand’s 13-year-olds have recorded their worst results on a major international math and science test.
Year 9 students’ scores on the International Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) fell by the largest margins since the study began in 1994.
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New Zealand’s 13-year-olds have recorded their worst results on a major international math and science test.
More than 580,000 children in 64 countries participated in the test in 2019.
Singapore topped the table in all subjects and for each age group with average math scores of 625 for 9-year-olds and 616 for 13-year-olds, and science scores of 595 for 9-year-olds and 608 for 9-year-olds. 13 years. -old.
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New Zealand’s scores for nine-year-olds (fifth-year students) also declined in both subjects since the test was last taken in 2014/15.
But the results of the Year 9 students were particularly bad. His math score dropped 11 points to 482 and his science score dropped 14 points to 499 on a scale where 500 is the midpoint.
The study showed that students performed worse on algebra and chemistry questions, and better on data and probability, and earth science.
RNZ
New Zealand thirteen-year-olds have recorded record low scores on a global math and science test. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study evaluated half a million children in 64 countries last year.
It found that New Zealand had one of the largest achievement gaps in mathematics based on the number of books students had at home, with 90 percent of students with many books meeting or exceeding the study benchmark of poor performance While the figure for students with few books at home was around 60 percent.
Study leaders Dr. Ina VS Mullis and Dr. Mick O Martin, from the Lynch School of Education at Boston College in the United States, said the decline in outcomes for 13-year-olds in New Zealand was “a little surprising”.
They said the results showed a “probably insurmountable gap” in math achievement between Asian countries and the rest of the world, and that the children’s home environment had the greatest impact on their achievement in all countries.
Martin said New Zealand had one of the highest, if not the highest, use of technology in schools.
The senior scientific adviser to the Ministry of Education, Professor Stuart McNaughton of the University of Auckland, said the scale of the drop in grades for 13-year-olds had surprised him.
“It is very important to be honest,” he said.
McNaughton said the TIMSS report showed where New Zealand students were weakest, such as biology and statistics, and that would help with specific solutions.
“These are really tough challenges and to be honest we should have solved them, but now we are in a better position to do so.”
He said that the Year 9 scores were the cumulative result of teaching in Years 4-8.
RNZ
A new mandatory NCEA literacy and numeracy test may be too difficult for some students. The Ministry of Education has presented draft versions of the standards that high school students will need to pass to obtain any level of NCEA beginning in 2023.
He said it was worth the effort to try to improve New Zealand’s scores, especially as schools must ensure that Maori and Pacific children perform as well as other children.
McNaughton said it remained to be seen whether the latest results were a trend that would continue.
“It does tell us that what we’ve been doing hasn’t worked,” he said.
“Now we need, I think as an example, more specialized teaching in years 4-8.”
The mathematics results of New Zealand Year 9 students showed a resurgence of a gap between boys and girls (in favor of boys) and 18 percent of students did not even reach the benchmark of underperforming, while only 6 percent reached the advanced benchmark.
By comparison, in Australia only 10 percent of students did not meet the low benchmark, and in Singapore 51 percent reached the advanced benchmark.
In science, only eight percent of ninth-year students reached the advanced benchmark, far behind the top-performing country Singapore, where 48 percent of students were advanced.
Year 5 New Zealand students scored 487 points in math achievement and 503 points in science. Both results were lower than the previous tests, but little different from the results for their age group during the last 20 years of tests.
On both grade levels and subjects, students from wealthy community schools performed better than students from poorer communities, as did students who reported a high sense of belonging and students who attended schools that emphasized academic success.
Seven percent of New Zealand students said they were bullied weekly, 28 percent said monthly, and 64.5 percent said never or almost never. Those figures were similar to those of Australia and slightly worse than in England and the United States. The study found that students who were bullied daily or weekly had lower scores than students who reported little or no bullying.
Compared to other countries, New Zealand’s scores were ranked as follows (with previous 2015 ranking in parentheses) Year 4 math 40th (34th), Year 4 science 34th (32nd), Year 9 math 23rd (21st), Year 9 science 19th (16th)).
The study is led by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.
Last year, 15-year-olds in New Zealand had their lowest scores on the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which assesses reading, math and science. Of the 79 countries that participated in PISA, New Zealand ranked 11th in reading, 12th in science and 27th in math.
Establish benchmarks
To meet the TIMSS benchmarks, students had to correctly ask questions like the following:
Mathematics: Year 4 students, advanced benchmark
A teacher wants to put 30 students in groups so that each group has the same number of students AND each group has an odd number of students. Show two different ways the teacher could form the groups.
Answer: Six groups of five students; 10 groups of three students.
(21% of New Zealand students answered this question correctly. The international average was 24%).
Science: Fourth Year Students, Low Benchmark
What animal has a backbone: octopus, spider, butterfly, frog?
Answer: frog
(78% of New Zealand students answered this question correctly. The international average was 74%).
Mathematics: Year 9 students, intermediate benchmark
On Thursday, the lowest temperature in city X was 6 degrees C and the lowest temperature in city Y was -3 degrees C. What was the difference between the lowest temperatures in the cities?
Answer: 9 degrees C.
(69 percent of New Zealand students answered this question correctly. The international average was 59 percent).
Science: Year 9 students, intermediate benchmark
Show whether each symbol or formula represents an element or compound.
OR
K
H2SO4
NH3
CH4
Mg
Answer: element, element, compound, compound, compound, element.
(48% of New Zealand students answered correctly. The international average was 61%).
This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and republished with permission.
