U.S. Education System Receives "Cs" on Report Card, According to OECD Report

U.S. students perform just slightly above or below average in the three categories (reading, math and science) of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) according to a new Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report. The report, Highlights From PISA 2009: Performance of U. S. 15-Year-Old Students in Reading, Mathematics, and Science Literacy in an International Context, provides an assessment of students' educational achievement and their ability to apply that knowledge in real world contexts. In comparison to the other 34 OECD member states, U.S. students (age 15) finished 14th in reading literacy, 17th in science and 24th in mathematics. If the OECD partner countries are included, those rankings fall to 17th in reading literacy, 23rd in science and 31st among the 65 countries surveyed. In 2009, approximately 470,000 students from 65 developed and underdeveloped countries took the PISA.

The report also points out that U.S. student only have made incremental improvements in spite of the world's second highest per student expenditure (Luxemburg spends more per student). According to the survey, the U.S. spends almost $100,000 on a student's education from age 6 to 15. However, U.S. students still perform worse than do students from 16 OECD countries. This includes Eastern European countries that spend less than half of the U.S. total per student. Since the last PISA in 2006, several countries have seen significant improvements in average scores. However, U.S. students saw only incremental improvements, according to the report. Read the OECD Report ...

In another recent report, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) discusses the importance of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education on future U.S. competiveness and proposes that the U.S. adopt a new approach of "all STEM for some." This national strategy would focus on the recruitment of students "who are most interested in and capable of doing well in STEM" and placing them in STEM intensive academic programs at properly equipped educational institutions. The "all STEM for some" approach would focus on the "five Is" to develop a new generation of STEM talent that can increase U.S. competiveness. They are:

• New kinds of educational Institutions;
• More Incentives to reward institutions for producing more high-quality STEM graduates;
• More Information to students, parents, and employers to give them more choice and to drive better performance by educational institutions;
• Capitalizing on student Interest; and,
• Spurring more Industry Involvement.

The report also contends that the current "some STEM for all" approach suffers from several key limitations. They include: only a small share of workers are scientists and engineers; it works against most students who have little motivation for high achievement in STEM related subjects; and giving "all students some STEM" is expensive and depletes limited resources. Read the ITIF Report ...