Students from East Asian countries, in addition to a select group of European countries, outperformed students around the world in math, science, and reading at both the 4th and 8th grades according to results released yesterday by Boston College Lynch School of Education professors Ina V.S. Mullis and Michael O. Martin, executive directors of the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center.

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is the first global assessment of math and science to provide data about trends over time, measuring achievement in these subjects every four years at the 4th and 8th grades since 1995. Performance on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) represents the “gold standard” internationally for reading comprehension at the 4th grade, measuring trends every five years since 2001.

As in previous cycles, TIMSS and PIRLS 2011–the fifth and third assessments of each project, respectively–report achievement at four international benchmarks that describe what students know and can do in math, science, and reading and can be used to help interpret achievement scores.

In math at the 4th grade, Singapore, Korea, and Hong Kong were top performers. At the 8th grade, Korea, Singapore, and Chinese Taipei led the world in achievement.

Korea and Singapore were also top performers in 4th-grade science. The top countries in 4th-grade reading were Hong Kong, the Russian Federation, Finland, and Singapore.

The National Center for Education Statistics (U.S.) has prepared highlights for both PIRLS and TIMSS.