The New York Times reported that the Trends in International Math and Science Survey (TIMSS) - conducted by the International Study Center at Boston College every four years - showed US youngsters making progress in math. The survey compares fourth-grade students from 36 countries, and eighth-graders from 48 countries on universally-taught subjects like geometry and physics.

The study released Tuesday, in which 425,000 students in all were tested, found that American schoolchildren, relative to many European countries, do better in math and science; but Asian students still dominate in math and have gained ground in science. It was also noticed that children in the US made significant gains in math since 1995 and score above average in tests.

In fact, scores in the US were above the TIMSS international average in each subject and grade.

Ina Mullis, co-director of the Boston College center, said: "It was good to see that the United States has made some progress in math. But I was surprised by the magnitude of the gap between us and the highest performing Asian countries, and that should cause us some concern."

The study reported dramatically higher math scores in five Asian countries above all others - Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. The top-performing Asian countries also had the biggest share of students reaching advanced benchmarks - representing fluency in the most complex topics and reasoning skills.

Andrew Coulson of the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute noted that the study gives too rosy a view of the US by including poorer countries. Coulson said if the comparisons are made to similarly rich countries, the performance of US children "drops to the middle of the pack".