Why america ranks low in education

In , the United States was ranked 18th out of 36 industrialized nations. Over that time, complacency and inefficiency, reflective of lower priorities in education, and inconsistencies among the various school systems contributed to a decline. The United States still ranks No. Concurrent with any even minor decline in American education, one has to consider the ambitious increases in education among the countries that have surpassed it.

Another factor is the diversity of people entering the American educational melting pot. Fifteen percent of the American score variation is explained by socio-economic differences between students. Less than 10 percent of score variation in Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, and Norway is due to socio-economic differences. Parts of China, Singapore, Japan, Korea, and Liechtenstein topped the rankings for math, reading, and science.

Finland, which is often pointed to as an example of an excellent school system, continued to perform well. However, the country dropped 2. Italy, Poland, and Germany also showed gains since How seriously should we take these dismal findings? Educators around the world have called for tempered reactions to the PISA scores and questioned the usefulness of the tests.

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