Much ado about nothing: on the achievements of Israeli students in the mathematics TIMSS-2003 examinations1

When the results of the Timms-2003 examinations had been released for publication it had become obvious that Israel was facing a major challenge regarding mathematical education. The decline in mathematical attainment in Israel started back in the 80s, but until the 1999 Timms results, placing Israel well under the international means, no serious consideration as to how to change the situation had been taken by the education system. In 2003 the results of the mathematics and science examinations seemed to be somewhat improved, but the 3-face problem had nonetheless remained more or less the same. I will hereby specify why the improvement in the mean international achievements had been just a “cosmetic“, facial, by under-covering the statistics behind the sample and showing that when many more third-world countries “join the club“ the relative position of the older members looks artificially better.