School & District Management What the Research Says

Performance Flat, But Gaps Widen in International Assessments

By Sarah D. Sparks — December 10, 2019 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The United States has gained ground against other countries in a global assessment of teenagers’ reading, math, and science skills. That’s ironic, though, considering this country has been running in place for years in all three subjects.

U.S. 15-year-olds made no significant progress on the Program for International Student Assessment. On a 1,000-point scale, students in 2018 earned on average 505 in reading, 478 in math, and 502 in science in 2018, statistically unchanged from the last test administration in 2015. Yet because several other countries declined during the same period, the United States rose in global rankings on all three tests. the United States significantly outperformed the average for all OECD countries in both reading and science, while it significantly underperformed the OECD average in math.

The PISA results echo those released last month from “the nation’s report card” that find widening gulfs between the highest- and lowest-performing students in reading and math. In both subjects, the top 10 percent of students have performed significantly better since 2012, while the performance of the bottom 10 percent of U.S. students declined.

The 2018 PISA, administered in the United States by the National Center for Education Statistics and developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, measures the skills of about 600,000 students from nearly 80 countries and education systems.

U.S. 15-year-olds performed on average at proficiency level on two of six levels on PISA in reading. That means the average American of that age understood the main idea and drew basic inferences in a moderately long text but struggled to understand and compare texts that included multiple features or competing ideas. They more readily reflected on texts given to them than located information or understood and inferred the meaning of what they read—results that mirror those of the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress for reading. The latter skills are sorely needed in a world with increasingly complex reading demands.

A version of this article appeared in the December 11, 2019 edition of Education Week as Performance Flat, But Gaps Widen in International Assessments

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management Opinion Why Principals Need to Talk About the Israel-Hamas War With Our Teachers
What can we do when a difficult topic is brought up by students in classrooms? First, don’t leave teachers to handle it in isolation.
S. Kambar Khoshaba
5 min read
Stylized photo illustration of a teacher feeling pressured as she is questioned by her students.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva
School & District Management Sometimes Principals Need to Make Big Changes. Here’s How to Get Them to Stick
School leaders need their community to take a leap of faith with them. But how do they build trust and conviction?
8 min read
Image of a leader reflecting on past and future.
akindo/DigitalVision Vectors
School & District Management A New Study Details Gender and Racial Disparities in the Superintendent's Office
Women and people of color are less likely than their white male counterparts to be appointed superintendent directly from a principal post.
6 min read
A conceptual image of a female being paid less than a male.
hyejin kang/iStock/Getty
School & District Management Late Arrivals, Steep Costs: Why Some Districts Ditch Third-Party Bus Companies
Districts are facing a host of transportation challenges. Some have addressed them by deciding to bring buses back in house.
6 min read
School buses parked in Helena, Mont., ahead of the beginning of the school year on Aug. 20, 2021.
Some districts are pulling back on decisions to outsource bus services in an effort to save money and improve service.
Iris Samuels/AP