Average Mathematics Achievement for Girls and Boys
Exhibit 1.1.2 shows the differences in average mathematics achievement between fourth-grade girls and boys in the 58 countries and 5 benchmarking participants, along with the average achievement for each of these groups, together with their associated standard errors (given in parentheses). Countries are sorted by default according to the size of the achievement difference between boys and girls, where negative differences indicate girls’ average achievement is higher than boys, and positive differences indicate boys had a higher average than girls. In TIMSS 2023, a range of differences can be observed across countries. In most countries (40), boys showed higher average achievement than girls, with only one country exhibiting an advantage for girls. The remaining 17 countries did not have average achievement differences statistically different from 0. It can be observed that differences of about 10 points or more tend to be flagged as statistically significant with an alpha level of 0.05. In contrast, smaller differences tend not to be flagged as significantly different from 0, unless their standard error (given in parentheses) is unusually small. Statistical significance does not necessarily imply that a difference is practically meaningful and achievement differences between girls and boys should always be considered in broader educational contexts within countries.
