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December 13, 2023

Anna Murray 

The results of the PISA exam, also known as the Program for International Student Assessment, were released on December 5. The results indicate that math proficiency among American teenagers has declined significantly since 2018, with scores that are worse than they were 20 years ago. Reading and science test results were consistent during that time. American students are still falling behind their overseas peers.

The testing was conducted on some 690,000 15- to 16-year-olds from 81 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) nations. When compared to previous surveys, performance has declined in the majority of countries. Almost every top ranking is held by an East Asian nation, including Estonia.

Only a few countries—Australia, Estonia, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea—maintained good math performance during the COVID-19 epidemic, according to the Pisa study for 15-year-olds.

Emily Oster, an economist from Brown University, and colleagues published a separate set of findings earlier in October. These were culled from millions of American students' test scores on over 20 different state tests. In 2023, fewer pupils will likely demonstrate proficiency compared to 2019. Between 2019 and 2021, arithmetic proficiency dropped significantly in nearly every state.