A positive press: what does TIMSS tell us that English schools do well?
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UCL IOE led the research and analysis for TIMSS 2019 and is doing so again for TIMSS 2023. Reflecting on TIMSS 2019 raised the question, ‘What do our primary and secondary schools do well, in relation to mathematics and science?’ Answers allow us to value what our young people achieve, and the professional and other support they have in achieving it. A key question for 2023 will of course be, ‘To what extent have schools maintained and perhaps extended what they do well, through the last four years that have included the pandemic?’
The TIMSS 2019 National Report shows that young people in England performed, on average, significantly1 above the TIMSS centre point (500) in mathematics and science in both years 5 and 9, and across almost all content areas. In mathematics, both year groups were good at handling data, an area that is ever-more important in our data-saturated world. 2019 performance in year 5 mathematics improved significantly from all previous cycles. In mathematics, many more students hit the advanced, high and intermediate international benchmarks and performed well when compared to both other English- speaking countries, and those in a representative ‘comparator’ group of other European countries.
Figure 1: England Year 5 average scores for 2011–2019 in mathematics cognitive domains
In mathematics year 5 pupils were particularly strong in ‘knowing’, and in year 9 in ‘applying’, perhaps suggesting that pupils were building strong core knowledge that they later learnt how to select and apply. Year 5 pupils were most successful in ‘knowing’ and ‘reasoning’ in science, whereas year 9 pupils were most successful in ‘knowing’ and ‘applying’. These broad conclusions are supported by the analysis we did of performance by test item: pupils at both ages and in both subjects were relatively strong on items that require straightforward use or application of core curriculum knowledge or procedure.
Across both year groups in both mathematics and science, girls and boys performed comparably; most measures showed comparable performance across ethnic groups and for students whose first language is not English.
In terms of attitude, pupils in England reported feeling confident, enjoying learning, experiencing ‘instructional clarity’, and in year 9, valuing, the subject in similar proportions to the international average – and particularly in mathematics. These attributes, particularly confidence, are associated with how pupils perform – the more they demonstrate them, the better they do, on average.
Figure 2: Year 9 pupils’ reported confidence in their mathematical ability and their average performance (England and International)
England’s schools also compared favourably in relation to reported emphasis on academic performance, resources, discipline and safety. Most teachers believed that their school maintains a safe and orderly environment, and no headteachers reported worrying discipline problems. Most pupils reported that they were never, or almost never, absent from school and also that they were never, or almost never, bullied.
It is important to celebrate these findings: our young people, parents and teachers need to be recognised and celebrated for improvement, achievement, and secure and supportive schools across the country. However, it also matters, for individual and national thriving, that we address less pleasing findings, for example the poor fulfilment of potential associated with significant under-performance by young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and persistently unhelpful differential mathematics attitude by gender. Our analysis of TIMSS 2023 data for England will report both successes and areas in need of improvement.
1 Where the term ‘significant’ is used this refers to statistical significance.