A Republic At Risk
Hardly a week goes by when some newspaper or television network doesn’t feature where the U.S. ranks among the nations participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). This test, administered to 15-year olds every three years, serves as a benchmark for “how we’re doing” in terms of education outcomes relative to our international competitors.
Because the results get so much attention, millions of Americans are aware that our students’ average scores rank relatively low on all three tests (though, when you account for error margins, U.S. scores are actually roughly average). Such awareness has stirred up remarkable urgency to improve our education system – we aretold this is a “Sputnik moment,” and that the very future of our nation’s economy is at risk.
Yet, for all the attention we pay to our rankings on standardized tests, how many Americans are aware that, in
