Average Mathematics Scores by Country 2007

This does not seem so bad to me.  Here is the original link. 

Table 1. Average mathematics scores of fourth- and eighth-grade students, by country: 2007

Grade four		Grade eight
Country	Average score	Country	Average score
TIMSS scale average	500	TIMSS scale average	500
Hong Kong SAR1	607	Chinese Taipei	598
Singapore	599	Korea, Rep. of	597
Chinese Taipei	576	Singapore	593
Japan	568	Hong Kong SAR1, 4	572
Kazakhstan2	549	Japan	570
Russian Federation	544	Hungary	517
England	541	England4	513
Latvia2	537	Russian Federation	512
Netherlands3	535	United States4, 5	508
Lithuania2	530	Lithuania2	506
United States4, 5	529	Czech Republic	504
Germany	525	Slovenia	501
Denmark4	523	Armenia	499
Australia	516	Australia	496
Hungary	510	Sweden	491
Italy	507	Malta	488
Austria	505	Scotland4	487
Sweden	503	Serbia2, 5	486
Slovenia	502	Italy	480
Armenia	500	Malaysia	474
Slovak Republic	496	Norway	469
Scotland4	494	Cyprus	465
New Zealand	492	Bulgaria	464
Czech Republic	486	Israel7	463
Norway	473	Ukraine	462
Ukraine	469	Romania	461
Georgia2	438	Bosnia and Herzegovina	456
Iran, Islamic Rep. of	402	Lebanon	449
Algeria	378	Thailand	441
Colombia	355	Turkey	432
Morocco	341	Jordan	427
El Salvador	330	Tunisia	420
Tunisia	327	Georgia2	410
Kuwait6	316	Iran, Islamic Rep. of	403
Qatar	296	Bahrain	398
Yemen	224	Indonesia	397
		Syrian Arab Republic	395
		Egypt	391
		Algeria	387
		Colombia	380
		Oman	372
		Palestinian Nat'l Auth.	367
		Botswana	364
		Kuwait6	354
		El Salvador	340
		Saudi Arabia	329
		Ghana	309
		Qatar	307

---

Average score is higher than the U.S. average score (p < .05)
Average score is not measurably different from the U.S. average score (p < .05)
Average score is lower than the U.S. average score (p < .05)
¹ Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China.
² National Target Population does not include all of the International Target Population defined by the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
³ Nearly satisfied guidelines for sample participation rates only after substitute schools were included.
⁴ Met guidelines for sample participation rates only after substitute schools were included.
⁵ National Defined Population covers 90 percent to 95 percent of National Target Population.
⁶ Kuwait tested the same cohort of students as other countries, but later in 2007, at the beginning of the next school year.
⁷ National Defined Population covers less than 90 percent of National Target Population (but at least 77 percent).
NOTE: Countries are ordered by 2007 average score. The tests for significance take into account the standard error for the reported difference. Thus, a small difference between the United States and one country may be significant while a large difference between the United States and another country may not be significant. The standard errors of the estimates are shown in tables E-1 and E-2 available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009001.
SOURCE: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), 2007.