US students like science, but they're way behind China and Singapore

"The U.S. produces a remarkably large share of the world’s top science performers," says Andreas Schleicher in a discussion of the PISA 2025 results. But American schools also have a lot of students who lack foundational science skills. The system "combines excellence with inequality."

"American students are more likely than students in many high-performing Asian systems to see science and technology as part of their future," says Schleicher, who is director for Education and Skills at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). "When students enjoy science, strong performance actually translates into career aspirations, and that’s clearly a strength here."

But, U.S. science students are far behind those in many Asian countries.

The U.S. has more "advanced" students than most other countries, and the percentages are going up, notes Brandon Wright. But there's a huge achievement gap.

Science students did worse in countries that adopted progressive education policies from 2015 to 2025, writes Montse Gomendio, a research professor who served as deputy director for education at the OECD. Pandemic disruptions accentuated a slide that began earlier, she argues in Education Next.

Policies that "treat equity as the main goal, decry student assessments as discriminatory, and downplay the importance of acquiring academic knowledge and skills in favor of so-called competencies" lead to lower standards, she writes. That widens achievement gaps.

Finland, once a PISA star, "declined 27 score points in science and 52 in reading (the equivalent of more than two years of schooling, according to OECD estimates)," she writes. Declines were sharp in Portugal and Spain.

Progressive policies have hurt disadvantaged students the most and "sapped the power of education as an engine of social mobility," Gomendio writes. What benefits students are "content-rich curricula, strong accountability mechanisms, effective teacher training, and standardized external exams that define common goals and expectations for all students."