OECD: Math, Reading Scores Plummet in Teens

Facts

• The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, has documented some of the biggest drops in performance since it began evaluating 15-year-olds' reading, arithmetic, and scientific skills every three years in 2000.¹
• The study is the most comprehensive international comparison of education achievement, closely watched by policymakers. Last year nearly 700K youths in 38 of the OECD's developed country members and 44 non-members took the test.²
• In OECD countries, reading performance decreased by 10 points on average and by 15 points in mathematics compared to when the tests last were conducted in 2018. This represents a loss of 75% of a learning year.¹
• While US students' math scores on the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment were down 14 points from the 2018 exam, they managed to score above the OECD average in reading and science.³
• In math, scores fell by 25 points in Germany, 27 points in the Netherlands and Poland, and 21 points in France, Sweden, and Portugal. Previously seen as a pioneer in education, Finland experienced one of the worst declines, falling 23 points. Iceland and Norway performed the worst, down 36 and 33 points, respectively.⁴
• The OECD also suggested that the COVID school closures are only partially to blame for the stark decrease in reading and math proficiency of teenagers across member nations.²

Sources: ¹The Business Standard, ²Reuters, ³The New York Times and ⁴Forbes.

Narratives

• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Al Jazeera. This is an eye-opener for educators in the West. Something is wrong. Asian students are outperforming the rest of the world, demonstrating years of progress. Students from Singapore top the list and are three to five years ahead of their peers in the US and Europe. In math, Macao, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea were near the top, whereas they scored near the top in reading and science. This suggests that deep systemic change is needed in Western education systems.
• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by The New York Times. These results are a mixed bag, especially for the US. The US climbed in the OECD ranking to 28th place out of 37 participating OECD countries, but this was mostly due to other countries' decreases. A lot more work does indeed need to be done to support American education, but this wasn't an entirely catastrophic report — especially when the abnormalities of COVID and school closures are factored in.

Predictions