Every three years, teenagers (15 & 16 year-olds) around the developed world are given standardized tests in math, reading and science, and the results give way to rankings noting how good or bad the education system is in the participating countries. The latest test results were released in early December, and the US education system is falling badly in the rankings. Not surprisingly, this news received little attention in the US mainstream media, so I made a note to comment on this troubling topic when time and space permitted. So here goes.
Before I get into the numbers, here’s a question for you: Would you assume that the US education system is in the top 20 of those in the 65 developed world countries? My guess is that most Americans would answer YES. If you did, you would be wrong! The US education system is not in the top 20 in math, reading or science, and our ranking is falling fast based on the latest data out in early December.
The periodic testing is conducted by an arm of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD. The tests are administered by the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Here are the results from the latest round of testing.
- US teenagers slipped from 25th to 31st in math since 2009;
- US teenagers plunged from 11th to 21st in reading; and
- US teenagers slipped from 20th to 24th in science.
How can this be, you might ask. That’s not an easy question to answer, as I will discuss below. After all, the US spends significantly more per year on our students’ education than the vast majority of the other countries in the 65 nations surveyed. But first, let’s look at the actual results from the latest round of testing. Warning: you’ll be surprised at how many countries get much better marks than America.
You’ll notice that the US doesn’t even appear on the list for math because we’ve fallen to #31 since 2009. You’ll also notice that we are near the bottom of the list in both reading and science. The US is below the OECD average of 65 countries in all three categories tested. And finally, you can see that the top performers are dominated by Asian countries, especially China.
Students in East Asian countries and provinces came out on top, nabbing eight of the top 10 places across all three subjects.
Again, the question is, how has the American education system devolved to this point? The answer is complicated. For one, I think that teachers’ unions and increasingly progressive school boards have “dumbed-down” our public education system under the guise of fairness.
For another, the standardized tests that are given to US students to determine whether they graduate to the next grade level have also been dumbed-down in most states so that more students can pass. Even worse, many teachers focus their classes largely on passing the test and omit many other subjects that contribute to a well-rounded education.
Next, the PISA report notes that in Asian countries that did so well on the test, their students have more “drive and confidence to fulfill their potential” as compared to students in lower scoring nations. The report goes on:
“In China and Shanghai, you have nine out of 10 students telling you, ‘It depends on me. If I invest the effort, my teachers are going to help me to be successful’.”
The report also suggests that students’ work ethic and discipline have deteriorated in the lower scoring nations, including the United States.
“Practice and hard work go a long way towards developing each student’s potential, but students can only achieve at the highest levels when they believe that they are in control of their success and that they are capable of achieving at high levels.”
In Japan, for example, students not only believe they are in control of their ability to succeed, but they are also prepared to do what it takes to be successful. According to the report, 84% of Japanese students said they won’t put off difficult problems, whereas in the US only half said so.
At the end of the day, the US education system is failing in large part because many students lack the work ethic and discipline to achieve at their highest potential, and teachers unions and school boards are dumbing-down the standards so they can pass more students. This is very sad.
In closing, I realize that today’s commentary on our failing education system may put me in the crosshairs of many hard working teachers. If so, I would welcome your comments and suggestions on how to fix our public education system.
Gary,
While I agree in part with your assessment that the US education system is failing, I disagree with the major blame being placed on teachers unions and school boards.
The blame should be placed on parents. Parents are responsible for their children’s education – not the government, school boards, or teachers. These are simply tools that parents can choose to use to educate their children if they desire that method.
Parents need to start education at home early in a child’s life by teaching their young children a strong work ethic, self-discipline, and self-control. They should also convey the expectation that the student should apply themselves diligently in their school work. This is what my parents did and what we are doing with our children.
Parents need to be more involved with the school boards and teachers by not only demanding excellence but partnering with the local school and teachers to effect this excellence.
I am not a professional educator. I have an electrical engineering degree, 10 children, and volunteer by teaching high school physics at a local private school that supplements families who choose to home school their children.
Hard work, diligence, and personal responsibility go a long way in success in life. I think too few parents understand this and even fewer teach this to their children.
Thanks for listening.
Steve Sanders
Steve,
Thank you for your reply, and I agree with all your points. I am surprised that Mr Halbert did not bring this point up given his views on the importance of financial education starting in the home. We parents need to take more responsibility in the raising of our children and not expect others to take the lead.
My wife and I made it a point to push our children early and give them good study habits and sense of accomplishment in finishing a project or assignment. We work together with our children’s teachers to make sure they are working to their full potential, but it really begins and ends at home.
My family is made up of mostly teachers and you can tell very easily which students have good support at home and which ones don’t.
Kevin Marden
Gary, while I agree with you, Steve, and Kevin completely, I would also posit another reason, involving higher education. I believe another failing is in the extreme liberalization of our teaching colleges and universities. For the past decade or longer, most of our new teachers coming out of the liberal institutions are totally unprepared to be effective teachers, Coupled with their newly acquired ideologies on political correctness and their laissez-faire attitudes toward everything (look at all the cheating scandals at major universities) mean that the math, reading, and science they are teaching to our high school students are woefully inadequate, as referenced by the scores you display. You could actually duplicate some of the Leno videos on the ignorance displayed on college campuses by interviewing recent teaching graduates from these liberal institutions. Granted, there are pockets and areas of excellent higher education that produce excellent teachers and the majority of these teachers are teaching at honors type high schools where if you check their students scores you will find them near the top of your display scores. As we have all noted, there are many factors at play in causing our educational woes in the U.S.
I can think of at least two headwinds that public education is facing right now, and neither of them are easy to address.
One, federal law has stressed attempts to keep lagging students from falling behind, which has the effect of holding back exceptional, and even average students.
Second, as others have noted, the parents themselves aren’t as involved with their kids’ education, which would certainly be a function of the breakdown of the family. It might also help if parents had more control over their own schools, which would require less control from state and federal agencies.
Unfortunately, Most people seem to believe that problems always require more, not less, involvement from state or federal government. So we’re still stuck with the adage (attributed to Mark Twain) “Never let your schooling interfere with your education.”