WASHINGTON – The United States is losing ground in education, as peers across the globe zoom by with bigger gains in student achievement and school graduation rates, a new study shows.
Among adults age 25 to 34, the U.S. is ninth among industrialized nations in the share of its population that has at least a high school degree. In the same age group, the United States ranks seventh, with Belgium, in the share of people who hold a college degree.
By both measures, the United States was first in the world as recently as 20 years ago, said Barry McGaw, director of education for the Paris-based Organization for Cooperation and Development. The 30-nation organization develops the yearly rankings as a way for countries to evaluate their education systems and determine whether to change their policies.
McGaw said the United States remains atop the “knowledge economy,” one that uses information to produce economic benefits. But he said “education’s contribution to that economy is weakening, and you ought to be worrying.”
The report, released Tuesday, bases its conclusions about achievement on international test scores released in December. Compared with their peers in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, 15-year-olds in the United States are below average in applying math skills to real-life tasks, the results show.
Top performers included Finland, Korea, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada and Belgium.
A separate international review last year showed U.S. eighth-graders gaining on their peers in science and math. At the same time, fourth-graders here are falling behind others as their test scores remain stagnant, that study found.
Younger students are making gains, said Ray Simon, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, but that progress is often lost by the later grades.
In all levels of education, the United States spends $11,152 per student. That’s the second highest amount, only behind $11,334 spent by Switzerland.
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