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A grim report card for the world’s schools

Math and reading scores have dipped to their lowest levels since the early 2000s. The reasons are complicated.

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A growing chorus of teachers, parents, and education experts is worried that American students can’t read. But, hear me out, silver lining here: At least the students are in good company. (Okay, maybe that’s not exactly a silver lining.)

A new report from the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA — a standardized global test of 15-year-olds’ math, reading, and science skills, administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development — finds that scores in all three subjects have dipped to their lowest levels in OECD countries since testing began in the early 2000s.

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Reading scores fell especially sharply, by the equivalent of more than a year of education, between 2015 and 2025. In the US, reading scores fell by roughly 14 percentage points between 2022 and 2025.

These results, based on a sample of........

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