This week, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) released the sixth installment of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), an analysis of secondary school students in math and science. More than 600,000 students from 60 countries and benchmarking regions participated.

The headlines came quickly:

Some positive: “These are the world’s best students in science and math,” “Science, Maths scores improve significantly.”  Some praising: “US Fourth and Eighth Graders Score Higher in Math and Science;” while others lament for the same country: “US students lag peers in East Asia, Russia in math, science.”  Some Ministers took it hard: “minister embarrassed by the “appalling results” in international ranking of national students“and education minister declares math ‘state of emergency.’“  And some offered advice: “We must invest in our education system.”

But which countries improved the most?

Once again, East Asian economies dominate the rankings, by a significant margin.  Top-performing economies in math include Singapore (621), Korea (606), Chinese Taipei (599), Hong Kong SAR China (594) and Japan (586).  These are followed by Quebec (543) and Russia (538).  A surprise entrant into the top 10 in 2015 is Kazakhstan (528), which is followed by Ireland (523) and Ontario (522), one of two Canadian provinces in the top 10.

Top performers in science include Singapore (597), Japan (571), Chinese Taipei (569) and Korea (556). In fifth position is Slovenia (551), followed by Hong Kong SAR China (546), Russia (544), England (537), Kazakhstan (533) and Ireland (530).

Adding both scores, the top 10 become: Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong SAR China, Russia, Quebec, Slovenia, Kazakhstan and England.

Since the first round of TIMSS in 1995, no country has improved more than Lithuania in science: by 58 points, more than half a standard deviation, from 464 points to 522.

Between 1995 and 2015, the following countries have recorded the highest increase in science scores:

	Increase	1995	2015
Lithuania	58	464	522
Slovenia	37	514	551
Hong Kong SAR China	36	510	546
Ontario, Canada	28	496	524
Russia	21	523	544
Quebec, Canada	20	510	530
Singapore	17	580	597
Japan	17	554	571
United States	17	513	530
Ireland	12	518	530

In math:

	Increase	1995	2015
Lithuania	40	472	512
United States	26	492	518
Korea	25	581	606
Hong Kong SAR China	25	569	594
Slovenia	22	494	516
Ontario, Canada	21	501	522
England	20	498	518
Iran	18	418	436
Russian Federation	14	524	538
Singapore	12	609	621

Overall:

	Increase	1995	2015
Lithuania	98	936	1034
Hong Kong SAR	61	1079	1140
Slovenia	59	1008	1067
Ontario, Canada	49	997	1046
United States	43	1005	1048
Korea	35	1127	1162
Russia	35	1047	1082
Singapore	29	1189	1218
England	24	1031	1055
Japan	22	1135	1157

There have been some large gains since the last round in 2011.  In math, Bahrain and Kazakhstan improved by a massive 45 and 41 points.  In science, Malaysia improved by 44, Kazakhstan by 43 and Dubai by 40.  Overall, the biggest increases were recorded by Kazakhstan, Dubai, Oman, Malaysia and Qatar.

These impressive gains can no doubt teach us a thing or two about what policies help children learn.  The quick review presented here hardly scratches the surface as to what can be learned from deep analysis of the data and trends.

Follow Harry Anthony Patrinos on Twitter at @hpatrinos.