U.S. Students About Average in Global Study

By Millicent Lawton

Washington

The biggest and broadest international study ever conducted comparing the math and science performance of 7th and 8th graders confirms evidence that U.S. achievement is disappointing. But it lays to rest some other popular notions about American education.

American students are neither the very worst in the world nor the very best, a finding that confirms past studies comparing the United States with other countries in mathematics and science. But the findings released here and in Boston last week show that science proved more manageable for American students--they scored above average internationally--than did math, in which they...