How Does Achievement Differ Across Science Content Areas?
Exhibit 3.1 presents average achievement in each of the six science 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. 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 488, the same as the
overall international average.
The countries scoring highest in the overall science assessment –
Chinese Taipei, Singapore, Japan, Korea, and the Netherlands –
were generally also the highest scorers in each content area, although
with some exceptions and not necessarily in that order. Similarly,
the Benchmarking jurisdictions with the highest overall performance
– the Naperville School District, the First in the World Consortium,
the Michigan Invitational Group, and the Academy School District –
were also the highest-scoring jurisdictions in five of the six science
content areas (all except scientific inquiry and the nature of science).
In all content areas, these Benchmarking participants had average
achievement comparable to that of the highest-scoring countries. The
four participants with the lowest overall performance – the Rochester
City School District, the Chicago Public Schools, the Jersey City
Public Schools, and the Miami-Dade County Public Schools – also
had the lowest performance in each content area.
In contrast to the consistent performance across content areas displayed
by the highest- and lowest-performing entities, performance varied
more for entities in the middle of the overall performance distribution.
The United States, which performed significantly above the international
average in the overall assessment, also had above-average performance
in each of the content areas except physics. Performance in Connecticut,
Idaho, and Guilford County followed the U.S. pattern. In life science
and in scientific inquiry and the nature of science, the two areas
in which the United States performed best, some of the lowest-performing
Benchmarking participants had more success than in the other content
areas. Rochester and Chicago performed at about the international
average in both content areas, and Jersey City and Miami-Dade in scientific
inquiry and the nature of science.
Exhibits B.1 through B.6 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.
