Washington – The most recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, released on Sept. 8, show the United States climbing in the global rankings. The rise is largely a relative gain: scores in science and reading remain above the OECD average, while math scores have caught up with other developed nations.
Why the U.S. Appears to Improve
According to the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development (OECD), the United States’ upward movement is driven by sharper declines in a number of other countries over the past decade. While U.S. math and reading scores have edged down or held steady, many peer nations have experienced steeper drops, allowing America to move up in the overall standings.
Domestic Performance Remains a Concern
Even with the relative boost, U.S. students are not excelling. Reading proficiency fell between 2022 and 2025, and math results were essentially flat. Seventy‑four percent of American 15‑year‑olds reached basic proficiency in reading, compared with 69 % of the 38 relatively affluent OECD members. In math, the United States posted a 65 % proficiency rate, matching the OECD average.
These figures are more encouraging than those reported by the federal government on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), highlighting the subjective nature of measuring mastery across different assessments.
Data Gaps and Uncertainty
The OECD flagged the U.S. results with an asterisk, noting incomplete school responses that could bias the outcomes in either direction. More than 40 % of U.S. participants did not complete the accompanying questionnaire, preventing a breakdown of results by race or family poverty—key drivers of educational gaps.
In contrast, only Albania’s results this year received a similar uncertainty label.
International Context
Across most participating nations, math and reading scores fell sharply between 2022 and 2025, mirroring earlier declines from 2018 to 2022. OECD analyst Andreas Schleicher warned that learning outcomes have stagnated or declined in many countries for over a decade, with achievement gaps persisting across socioeconomic groups.
Countries such as Singapore, Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada were among the few that scored above average on all four PISA domains.
Potential Drivers of the Global Decline
OECD officials have suggested several hypotheses: increased student absenteeism, greater classroom disruptions, and the proliferation of personal devices like phones and tablets. U.S. educators and researchers have raised similar concerns.
Despite these challenges, U.S. students report relatively positive relationships with teachers, higher growth mindsets, and more access to peer‑to‑peer tutoring. They are also less likely to attend schools suffering from teacher or material shortages, factors that may help American learners decline less rapidly than peers abroad.
Looking Ahead
National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) chief of global strategy Tracey Burns emphasized that reading proficiency is vital not only for academic success but also for a healthy democracy and civic participation. She cautioned that while the U.S. appears to be rising in the rankings, the underlying story about serving disadvantaged students remains unclear.
As policymakers consider reforms, the PISA data underscore the need for targeted support to improve reading and math outcomes, especially for students from low‑income families.
Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
