U.S. Students Score Far Below Others in Math and Science
Leave it up to the U.S. Government to put a positive spin on poor performance.
Here is what is written on the U.S. Education website regarding the results of an international comparison of student scores of 15 year olds on Reading and Science Literacy.
The U.S. average score in reading literacy was not measurably different from the OECD average in 2000 or 2003, nor was there any measurable change in the U.S. reading literacy score from 2000 to 2003. The U.S. score was below the OECD average science literacy score in 2003. There was no measurable change in the U.S. science literacy score from 2000 to 2003.
The government is a little bit more forthcoming when discussing US performance in mathematics literacy and problem solving:
In 2003, U.S. performance in mathematics literacy and problem solving was lower than the average performance for most OECD countries. The United States also performed below the OECD average on each mathematics literacy subscale representing a specific content area (space and shape, change and relationships, quantity, and uncertainty).
The Table Below, from the OECD Program for International Student Assessment, shows student performance on the science scale of 40 countries in the 2003 PISA survey. Of the 40 countries, the U.S. ranked 22nd.
I am not only concerned that it is a national embarrassment that U.S. students score poorer than average in science compared to those in most of the countries in the civilized world. I am also very concerned that, given our students’ poor performance in math and science, our huge federal and trade deficits, and the rapidly declining value of the American dollar, America will soon lose its competitive edge on the world stage.
Student performance on the science scale from the 2003 PISA Survey
| Country | Score |
| Finland | 548 |
| Japan | 548 |
| Hong Kong-China | 539 |
| Korea | 538 |
| Liechtenstein | 525 |
| Australia | 525 |
| Macao-China | 525 |
| Netherlands | 524 |
| Czech Republic | 523 |
| New Zealand | 521 |
| Canada | 519 |
| Switzerland | 513 |
| France | 511 |
| Belgium | 509 |
| Sweden | 506 |
| Ireland | 505 |
| Hungary | 503 |
| Germany | 502 |
| Poland | 498 |
| Slovak Republic | 495 |
| Iceland | 495 |
| United States | 491 |
| Austria | 491 |
| Russian Federation | 489 |
| Latvia | 489 |
| Spain | 487 |
| Italy | 486 |
| Norway | 484 |
| Luxembourg | 483 |
| Greece | 481 |
| Denmark | 475 |
| Portugal | 468 |
| Uruguay | 438 |
| Serbia | 436 |
| Turkey | 434 |
| Thailand | 429 |
| Mexico | 405 |
| Indonesia | 395 |
| Brazil | 390 |
| Tunisia | 385 |