Pressure for International Benchmarks Builds

Other nations’ methods may help shape policy, influential groups argue.

Three influential policy groups—keenly aware of U.S. students’ uneven scores on international tests—are pushing individual states to take lessons from high-performing countries in specific areas of school policy, such as curriculum, textbook design, and teacher recruitment and preparation.

The “common core” of internationally benchmarked standards in math and language arts urged by the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and Achieve Inc. would contrast with what the groups see as inconsistent academic goals now used around the county.

Yet the trio’s Dec. 19 recommendations—and results released earlier last month from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study—also underscore disagreements among researchers and policymakers on the lessons the United States should draw from education...