From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Steep drop for Israeli students in international math and science test scores
Gavriel Fiske is a reporter at The Times of Israel
Israeli students in 2023 showed a dramatic decline in mathematics and science test scores, according to the TIMSS 2023 international report, released this morning.
According to the data, Israeli 8th grade students in 2023 dropped 14 places internationally in math scores to 23rd overall, and 9 places in science results, to 25th place, as compared to the previous testing period in 2019.
The 2023 testing took place before the October 2023 outbreak of the war between Israel and the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups.
Some 5,200 Israeli students participated, but the survey did not include students in the ultra-Orthodox school track and students from East Jerusalem.
The 2023 results, which cover the post-COVID period, showed a general worldwide decline in math and science test scores, according to the TIMSS report, although the drop for Israeli students was more acute than most.
The Education Ministry, in a statement about the results, attributed Israel’s drop to the extended series of COVID lockdowns, which caused schools to move to distance learning.
Israel had a total of 130 days of school lockdowns during COVID, as compared to countries like Sweden (49 days) or the United Kingdom (64 days), both of whom showed slight improvement in math scores.
The TIMSS study – the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study – has been conducted every four years since 1995 and is a project of the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement) coordinated at Boston College. Israel has participated in the study since 1999.
The study tested about 300,000 students from 9,000 schools in 72 countries.
