Research Notes: Is the U.S. Really Stupid?

It is widely believed and lamented that American students perform poorly in international comparisons of academic achievement. In Is the United States Really Losing the International Horse Race in Academic Achievement?, Erling Boe and Sujie Shin demonstrate that the results of such assessments are far more nuanced than the headlines suggest. Having examined international studies conducted over ten years in four subjects and at three grade levels, the authors show that U.S. students actually score somewhat above their peers in other industrialized nations, with only 24 percent of national scores being significantly higher than the U.S. and 35 percent being significantly lower. The exception was mathematics, where American students score somewhat below average. U.S. achievement scores at the middle and secondary levels are comparable to those of other Western G7 nations in reading, mathematics, and science, and considerably higher in civics.

Because of the well-known achievement gap in the U.S. between White and minority students, scores were further analyzed by race/ethnicity (White, Black, and Hispanic). U.S. achievement scores for White students were consistently higher than scores for the other five Western G7 nations. By comparison, scores for U.S. Black and Hispanic students were very low and well below other scores-a significant factor in reducing the competitive standing of the U.S. Overall, however, Boe and Shin concluded that American students generally perform above average in comparisons with industrialized nations.

This article appeared in Phi Delta Kappan, 86(9).