Chance Favors the Prepared Mind: Mathematics and Science Indicators for Comparing States and Nations

This paper describes state and international education indicators for mathematics and science
using state data collected by the 2005 and 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP) and international data collected by the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and
Science Study (TIMSS) in grade 8.2 Data from the two studies are expressed in the same metric
through statistical linking (Phillips, 2007). By expressing both assessments in the same metric,
states within the United States can use TIMSS results as international benchmarks to monitor
progress over time. The overall findings at the national and state level were as follows.