Massachusetts finished first among U.S. states in a study comparing the academic performance of American students with others around the globe, the Associated Press reported.
Nineteen percent of Massachusetts eight-graders reached an advanced benchmark in mathematics on the 2011 tests, while 24 percent reached an advanced level in science.
The study compared all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Department of Defense schools to 38 countries who participated in the "Trend in International Mathematics and Science Study" and nine other subnational education systems.
Massachusetts was one of nine states where students actually took the TIMSS tests. Students in the other 43 U.S. states didn't participate in the TIMSS test, but their scores were predicted based on their performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, the AP reported.
Nearly 2,100 students from 56 public schools in Massachusetts took the TIMSS tests in 2011.
The commissioner of elementary and secondary education in Massachusetts Chester Mitchell said the state has "set a high bar" for expectations on student performance in its own standardized tests, the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System.
"It's been well-documented that the benchmarks we've set on our tests are higher than virtually every other state," he said. "Our teachers are used to aiming at a high target."
Massachusetts students still lagged behind students in Chinese Taipei, the Republic of Korea and Singapore, where about half of their students reached the advance benchmark in math, and 40 percent of students in Singapore reached the benchmark in science.
AP reported that overall, eight-graders in 36 states performed above the math and science averages on the test. However, Massachusetts was the only state whose average score reached the high benchmark. It also led the states in science scores as well but was only slightly ahead of Vermont.
Monty Neill, executive director of FairTest, a Boston-based national group that works to improve standardized tests, said the strong performance by Massachusetts students is not surprising.
He said Massachusetts often performs well in international education studies, in part because it has a high rate of educated parents and a fairly low percentage of kids in poverty.
''The primary determinant of test scores seems largely to be poverty and issues such as racial segregation or English language learners,'' Neill said. ''Urban schools have higher teacher turnover; they don't have the resources to overcome the consequences of poverty."
Neill said the state needs to do more to help schools in low-income communities.
